Thank You to LFA

Dear Steve:

I have to start this off with thanking you for this internship opportunity. I knew when I read the description for this particular internship, that it was the experience for me.
With my lack of experience in a non-profit organization, you trusted me enough to give me this opportunity in the local food system department of Local First Arizona.
You have been so incredibly supportive of me through this experience. You have given me guidance, and confidence through my endeavors here at Local Fist Arizona.
You allowed me to turn a passion into education, and experience. I have been able to expand my passion into actual experience, which has been an amazing experience.
I will forever be connected, and have a special place in my heart for Local First Arizona. I can confidently say that I will always support, and continue to promote the organization, and your's, and everyone else's work a the organization.
Thank you once again, and I look forward to your future accomplishments, and volunteering.

Sincerely,
Cristy

Meeting my Internship Goals

The most important skills I learned from my internship were:

1. Communicating with the public about a change

2. Learning how to effectively communicate through a blog post

3. Being independent to run an event

Through working events at the local Farmer's Markets, I was able to learn how to communicate with the public effectively. I would reel them in by asking them questions, and finding out their background knowledge on our change topic. Then, I was able to adapt my communication to the individual, and enable them to be more interested in Local First Arizona, and it's change effort. I was very nervous in the beginning, especially when I began doing the events by myself. I wanted to make sure I was communicating with all the right words, and engaging people. However, I could tell my success by the amount of people I was able to sign up for the Local First Arizona newsletter. I was even able to get people interested in becoming a volunteer for the organization. Towards the end, I felt very comfortable with setting up our table at events, and communicating with the public.

Steve, my mentor, really helped me hone in on my communication skills through blog posts. I learned how to effectively communicate through a short blog post, and use key words to make my point give an impact on the audience, and also be interesting. These were great skills I can use in school, and at work. It was also really cool to see my work being viewed by the public, and being a part of the mission of Local First Arizona.

I would definitely say I met all of my goals from my first blog post, and even learned more than I hope. I can not express enough how thankful I was to experience the change effort, and the people of Local First Arizona. It was such a positive learning environment, and really helped with my education and communication skills. 

Free Write- Travel

Something I really enjoy doing is traveling. For myself, I would consider it a hobby. I say this, because instead of spending my money on mostly material items, I save my money in order to take a trip/travel. 

Since I have been 18 ( I am 25 now), I have only travelled within the United States. I have been all over the country, but I still have states/regions I would love to explore. 

Typically, my method is to find a concert I would like to see, and then I base my trip around that. It is such a great way to plan a trip, in my opinion. Choosing concerts have brought me into different states that I had not yet been to. I am able to enjoy some of my favorite bands, and then take the opportunity to explore the region. 

Some of my favorite trips have consisted of taking road trips across some states and making it a multiple state adventure. For example, in the summer of 2013, my Fiancé and I drove up to Boise, Idaho, then back down to Las Vegas, and then to Flagstaff. It was such a beautiful drive, and we were able to see a few friends and concerts along the way.

After graduation I would love to start saving to explore outside of the country. I will be able to have more time to take off, and more money to save. I definitely want to travel central America, Australia/New Zealand, Japan and of course Europe. 

The Strengths of Local First Arizona

Local First Arizona has many strengths, which shows through their success as a growing non-profit organization. 

First, the organization reaches across the state for their cause. They really understand how to market their change effort, and how to entice those who are not familiar with their cause. I strongly believe this is because of the constant collaboration among the constituents of the organization, and their fearless leader. These individuals are entirely passionate about what they want to see changed in their community, and how they want to get there. 

Next, the individuals that work in the organization have areas they specialize in, but they are constantly working as a team. They are open to ideas, they collaborate, and the feed off each other. Also, they are all very encouraging of each other. I constantly hear praise given when deserved, and constructive feed back when needed. The LFA work environment is truly a great learning environment, and I really received a lot of constructive feedback that was not intimidating, and received praise that made me recognize my hard work when needed. 

Third, Local First Arizona is very involved with the community. They are involved in a wide range of event types, with a wide range of business type. They are always looking for new way to connect with new groups of individuals, and help them recognize the significance of the local community to them and their communities. Also, each individual is enthusiastic and passionate about participating in the events, which makes the experience so much better to be a part of, and for people of the community to learn.

I honestly could not sit here and say I would do anything different. I was proud to be a part of the LFA community, and their success as a non profit organization speaks about their strengths as a team, and as an organization of a change movement. 

Free Write- Gardening

Well, since my whole internship and blog have been based around local food, I decided to share my experience with gardening.

Growing up, I remember my mom attempting to grow certain food, mostly tomatoes. However, I was not really introduced to growing my own food until my adult years. Probably about 4 years ago, my Fiance and I decided to start trying some gardening out, and growing some of our own vegetables and herbs.

At first we had little success. We just didn't have the ideal growing conditions in our small back yard. It was mostly shady throughout the day. We just had one small corner of the back yard that received adequate amounts of sunshine, and there we grew herbs such as basil, and cilantro.

When we move into our current home, it already had a space in the back yard set up for gardening. Since moving in almost two years ago, we have experimented further, and had great success!

We have grown (and consumed):
corn
romaine lettuce
carrots
broccoli
green onions
tomatoes
basil
cilantro


I have to say, there is nothing like going out into your own garden, picking a fresh vegetable or herb out of the garden, and adding it straight into your meal. So fresh, and you know 100% how it was grown, and where it was grown. When I graduate, I intend to expand my garden, and try out some new crops. It is a great hobby, and saves us money, too!

Career Service #2

Today, April 15 2015 (no this isn't about tax day), there was a career service held by Notre Dame Mission Volunteers. 

When I was browsing the career services coming up that were offered, I decided I wanted to learn more about this firm.

It wasn't exactly what I thought the organization was going to be, but this is what I took from it:

The organization sends volunteers around the US to work alongside other religious folks, who are trying to make a difference with the "economically disadvantaged". While the volunteers are at their locations, they work with the disadvantaged with "literacy and education". Overall, the firm really strives to help the disadvantaged through education, which they believe is the key to helping someone help themselves.

I like the idea of what the firm is trying to accomplish. However, it was not quite the organization for me. My last career service I went to check out the Peace Corps, and that really resonated with me. 

For the career services, I was more interested in learning about experiences outside of schools, as opposed to seminars or workshops. I think I was able to do some good exploring. Of the two, I really enjoyed the PeaceCorps, and everything they had to offer in terms of experiences. 

Free Write- Living in Flagstaff

To be honest, I would have never thought I would have moved to Flagstaff. It never crossed my mind until I was 20. I had live in the valley my whole life, born and raised. I really wanted a complete different change of scenery, and it seemed easiest to move to Flagstaff. I could go to school, and still be close to my family. 

The setting and life style in Flagstaff is completely different than living in Mesa. Everything is pretty close together, you can get anywhere in town on a bicycle. Other than a nice warm ride in the winter, you probably don't really need a car to live in Flagstaff. In fact, traffic gets so congested in Flagstaff, that you can get around faster on a bike. This is something we can't really do in Phoenix, because everything is so spread out. We basically all have to commute to a job to some extent. Grocery stores, retail stores, and everything in between is all spread out.

The community in Flagstaff is very tight knit. The community is very active in all events, whether recreational or political. The town of Flagstaff feels passionate about how it is set up, and they strive to keep it a certain way. I learned that Flagstaff has a big box policy where they have limits on how big a commercial building can be. For example, a giant super center Wal-Mart can not be built. The Wal-Marts there are pretty small. I also found it funny that tourists think Flagstaff is a "real" city, because they have a Wal-Mart. 

Another thing I really liked about Flagstaff is that it wasn't so small you knew everyone, but you are able know quite a bit of people from living there. For example, you could go to the down town area and most likely run in to someone, so you wouldn't necessarily always need to make plans with everyone. I guess this probably pertains mostly to going down to the bars on the weeks! :) 

Flagstaff was a really cool experience, but I knew I needed to move back to the city to get established and have more room to grow. I am really glad I chose the degree I am in at ASU. 

Free Write- AZ Micro Greens

During my internship, my mentor/supervisor Steve schedule a tour at AZ Microgreens. I almost feel embarrassed to admit this, but I really was unknowledgeable about micro greens, or more well known sprouts. 

http://www.arizonamicrogreens.com

AZ Microgreens, and three other agriculture based companies, set up shop at a very large scale greenhouse. The really cool part about this greenhouse, is that is was built on an "abandoned" elementary school playground. A while ago, the school was basically shut down due to lack of funds. So in an effort to revitalize the area, and utilize the space instead of demolishing the building. The classrooms are used as offices mostly by non profit organizations, which pay pretty cheap rent to the government. It is a really efficient set up, that I honestly hadn't really ever heard about in the Phoenix area. I really loved hearing that non profit organizations were utilizing this abandoned space, and for something so great like agriculture.

Arizona Microgreens grows a wide variety of micro greens. Basically they harvest the vegetable at it's sprouting stage, when it is only a few inches tall. Micro greens have the most nutrients, and cancer fighting elements at this stage. I was able to walk through the rows of sprouting seeds, and sample as I pleased. I tried radish, mustard, corn, broccoli, and many other types of sprouts. I was so blown away by the distinct flavor each type of sprout had. I remember the radish being really harsh, and the corn was so sweet and by far my favorite. Then Steve and I were put to work, and we harvested our own sprouts to take home!

It was an eye opening experience, and one that was very unique! I encourage everyone to check out AZ Microgreens website, and tour their grow house. 

Free Write- MMMF

This weekend, I took a nice (and much needed) break from school and went to the three day festival in Down Town Phoenix called McDowell Mountain Music Festival. 

My work usually helps donate towards the charity event of the festival, because one of the main sponsors is a construction company we do interior work for. I actually just learned that this weekend, and I thought it was really awesome that my work donated to the cause, and also that they gave out VIP tickets to the employees who were interested in going.

I really enjoyed all the different bands that were put together in one concert setting. I love the opportunity to check out new music, or appreciate a band even more by hearing them live. One bad I really appreciated more than I thought was Portugal the Man. They had such a great stage presence, and kept everyone dancing. Also, I got to see my favorite band, Widespread Panic, which always brings a fun crowd and a great show!

Another thing I really enjoyed was the setting in Down Town Phoenix. I was able to check out a couple places down town before the festival, so I felt like it connected me a little bit more with the community.

I am a bit exhausted today after the whole weekend. I won't lie, I struggled a little bit through work and class today (haha). However, I am feeling good and more motivated to finish up the rest of the semester!

Public Service & Urban Governance

Why do I believe Local First Arizona demonstrates Public Service and Urban Governance? 

Well, there are several reasons why.

Local First Arizona's sole purpose is to service the local communities, by building local economy, vibrant communities, and ultimately supporting the community.

The are active in many mixers, events, and speeches each month to connect people in the community. Those connections are networking amongst local businesses, connection of local producer and local consumer, and connecting consumers to their community. 

If it wasn't already obvious, Local First Arizona is all about their community, and anything that will benefit it.

Local First Arizona, not only makes connections within the community, but they fight to influence policy to ensure their vision for their community. 

Local First Arizona is compiled of people who are inspired by the community, want to provide services for their community, and who are leaders of the community. 

Local First Arizona inspires others to be dedicated to their community, and be a part of the public service initiatives. 

Supervisor Interview

For my Leadership and Change class last semester, we had to interview someone who we believed was a leader and making change happen. It immediately struck me to interview my supervisor, and mentor, Steve. He is absolutely a leader in a change effort. He works tireless to communicate local and healthy food to a community, and motivate a change within our community. He is very precise about the work his team does, and sets high standards. At the same time, he is always willing to do any task that he may ask his constituents, and always makes the environment fun. 

I would like to share this interview about leadership that I had with Steve. This interview gives a more personal, and inside view point on Local First Arizona. It really shows how innovative, dedicated, and passionate a non-profit organization can be!

·       Within the organization, do you observe more energy and effort being directed toward meeting the objective of the change effort? Do you see individuals challenging questions and validating for themselves the need to change? – How you view other in the organization wanting to participate in the change; are they part of the change, do they make effort with personal lifestyle, etc..

We are all completely bought in to the work that we do. Our organization’s goal is to build consumer participation in the local economy, and I’d say that we are all very dedicated to making those individual consumer choices that we encourage others to make as well. For instance, we all visit the farmers’ market for much of our produce, we all participate in buy local month in December, and there is often at least one of us present at many of our events, enjoying the experiences for ourselves. We hold ourselves and one another accountable on this, so yes, I would say that we are very dedicated to being a part of the change.

·       Within the organization, does your group that is guiding change motivate and inspire others to participate in the change?

Yes, I think so. Our organization understands that we will not successfully change Arizona’s economy without the participation of other members of that economy. A large portion of the work that we do is inspiring others to make changes for themselves, by reminding them of the big picture. We walk the walk when it comes to building the local economy; we inspire other businesses via practices such as ensuring that almost all of our b2b transactions are done with local companies. Often we find that businesses are hesitant to do this due to the perception of the expense with working with locals, so by doing this, we help to lead the way for other entities to follow.

·       Within the organization, does your group that is guiding change consistently get the resources, information, and support it needs to progress rapidly?

Not always. Sometimes we need to work with limited resources to get the job done. It can be a challenge, but we work hard to bring together resources that already exist in the community. For example, for our Fall Festival, we borrow picnic tables from the Roosevelt Row CDC in stead of renting costly table/chair combos for seating.

·       Regarding the change effort, what is your vision? How do you make your vision compelling and desirable for your constituents/other individuals?

Local First Arizona´s goal is simple: Make Arizona a better place by supporting locally owned businesses and building vibrant communities that residents are proud to call home.

·       Do you and your constituents/ other individuals in the organization  discuss the vision, goals, and strategies in routine management meetings as well as formal and informal gatherings?

We do regularly discuss how our initiatives fit in with the vision/mission/goals of the organization, however, there is minimal discussion on developing our mission/vision/goals further, except on a case-by-case basis, as it pertains to the evolution of our initiatives. For example, when we adopted a new initiative that promotes “good food” we had a process of defining exactly what “good food” looks like, and had to decide whether or not advocating for (for example) GMO-free food was within the scope of our mission/vision/goals.

·       Within the organization, do you use recognition and reward systems that inspire, promote optimism, and build self-confidence? Do you observe new ideas being proposed and tested by your constituents/other individuals in the organization?

Yes; LFA is all about recognition and empowerment. Our organizational belief is that people perform their best when they enjoy what they are doing, and feel a genuine passion for that work. To that end, all members of staff and the head leadership at LFA regularly recognize the various volunteers, staff etc. in the form of appreciation, encouragement and recognition.

·       Regarding the change effort, are there quick results that are made visible to all? Do your constituents/other individuals regularly recognize and celebrate even the small important achievements?

Yes, we have very active social media streams, and utilize our live twitter feed to highlight all things small and large, then facebook to highlight the big stuff. This platform also allows our members to retweet and share the message, further amplifying our voice and reach!

·       Within the organization, are new projects and initiatives being launched to make more significant changes to the organization’s processes, technology, and systems?

Yes, for example, we are currently in the process of a major website overhaul, addressing many issues with website functionality, as well as integrating a new web platform

·       Within the organization are people seeking to understand what they need to do and what is expected of them to be successful in the change effort? Do they use old habits, values, and traditions to describe how things have changed?

Our team is very good at seeking consensus and collaborating to meet goals. Our office setup, we have one giant table that everyone sits at, so we often work together to develop our own capacity through internal mentoring and advising. We are very much a team, and we are always working on building new strategies and habits that will make us a more productive workplace.  

Leadership

Leadership definitely plays a role in my internship environment. Local First Arizona is a leader for its cause, and Arizona's communities. Each member of Local First Arizona has to be a leader for the cause of the organization as well. Each employee does their best to represent what local means. They shop local, eat local, and promote local to the best of their ability. 

When I was interning for LFA last semester, I immediately felt engaged to be as consumed in local as possible. I began shopping more frequently at Farmer's Markets, finding the local food producers at stores, and eating at local restaurants. I wanted to represent that I was being a leader of local within my community, just as my co-workers were doing. 

After my internship, into this semesters, I have kept my loyalty to my affiliation with Local First Arizona. I still want to represent the local community, and be a leader for LFA. This internship has changed my habits, and I want to continuously improve. 

I would definitely say it is imperative for everyone affiliated with Local First Arizona, from employees to volunteers, to display leadership. Local First Arizona is motivating a social movement, and everyone affiliated has to be completely passionate for its cause. They have to live the life they are pushing others to change to. They have to be as local consuming as possible, to show others that it is possible. They are constantly involved in the community, working with the community, and shopping within the community. 

Free Write-

Well, I thought I would write about my life in the last two semesters, as this is the busiest I believe I have ever been in my life. 

I am 25 years old, and I have been working full time since I started college when I was 20. When I started college I was bar tending full time. In fall of 2013, I decided I needed to get out of the night life, and into a day job, so I used my associates degree to get a job at an interior construction firm. So, since the fall of 2013, I have been working full time during the day, and going to school full time at night and online. 

In the fall of 2014, I added my internship hours into my hectic schedule. I would work my internship in the middle of the day, and work at my job before and after. I ended up working nearly 60 hours, plus my 15 credit hours of school. 

This semester I was promoted at my job to a salary position as an account manager. I am now juggling my 40+ hours full time job, 15 school credits, and wedding planning. My work has been very flexible towards school, and has allowed me to work some of my hours around fitting in my internship, and classes. In fact, they were pleased with my ability to manage full time work and full time school, and thought that was a great skill to my new position as an account manager. 

I feel very thankful to  have landed a full time job that has promoted me to a career position. I know it is a lot of work, and time put into working full time, and going to school full time, but I am already seeing the hard work pay off. 

To look back on these last two semesters, I feel crazy for taking on so much, but at the same time I am very pleased with myself, and excited for how I have set things up. Also, I have really learned to manage my time very efficiently, and feel silly to have thought before these last two semesters I was "too busy" to fit something in. After learning to manage work, school, wedding planning, family, and friends, I know now that I should never feel "too busy" to make a phone call or meet up with someone or fit something else in.

Here's to eight more weeks of chaos!  

Career Service Number One

Today I went to the PeaceCorp information career service at the downtown Phoenix campus inside the A.E England Building.

I thought this was a great location due to the cultural nature of the downtown area, and the cultural learning of the PeaceCorp information session. 

I decided to do this event, because I was really interested in the PeaceCorps when I was younger, so I thought I would give myself a chance to see what it was all about. Plus, I had never had a chance before to learn more about PeaceCorps, or knew how to move forward with it. 

When I first walked in into the historic building, past PeaceCorp volunteers were speaking in front of the room, and tables with information surrounded the perimeter of the building. 

I started off by grabbing a seat, and listening to the speakers.

Each speaker experienced their volunteering in a different region- Mongolia, Philippines, Samoa, Central America. They shared stories about their experiences, and how it helped change them and build character. It was funny hearing their stories about cultural learning experiences, each one unique to the region. Everyone that spoke seemed very excited about what they had to share, and were very thankful for the experience. 

After the speeches, I walked around the room and browsed the informational tables. I realized there were many educational opportunities in addition to the traditional PeaceCorps. To be a PeaceCorps volunteer you are placed in a foreign country for 27 months. Each volunteer has the opportunity to learn another culture, exchange knowledge and cultural experiences. However, if you weren't quite up to committing for 27 months,  there are opportunities to study abroad for a semester, which most people are aware of. There were also programs such as collaborative solutions through the school of engineering to bridge the gap between cultures. It was nice to see how many ways there were to reach out and learn another culture, while creating a memorable experience for all parties involved. 

Although I think I missed my time to explore the PeaceCorps, I am glad to know there are other ways to have a cultural, and educational experience. I definitely encourage anyone who isn't quite ready to go into the workforce after college, to explore the PeaceCorps! It looks like an amazing experience for so many reasons, and there are so many benefits for a volunteer when they come back, including scholarships for a Master's Degree. 

I am glad I took the opportunity to learn about the PeaceCorps, because it was something out of the norm for me, and I at least got to explore a childhood dream. 

Free Write- My Real Food Journey

Steve, my supervisor and mentor, asked me at the beginning of my internship to think about my real food journey, and what it meant to me through the course of my internship. This was something I knew I would think a lot about, and something that would really develop through my internship. 

My real food journey began years ago. It was a journey that lead me to be who and where I am today. Finding real food is difficult, especially growing up in a culture that thrives on fast, cheap, and convenient food. Starting my real food journey was not planned, nor understood at the time. It wasn't until Steve asked me to think about it, that I realized this is what I had been doing all along--finding real food. 

I am extremely proud of this blog post I wrote for Steve, Local First Arizona, and all the localists out there. The blog I would like to share with anyone who reads this blog entry, is very personal and special to me. It describes what a real food journey is through my eyes, and how it has impacted me. I hope it entertains, inspires, and educates anyone who reads it. 

Cristy's Real Food Journey

Free Write- My Personal Experience

How does local, especially local food systems, correlate with my degree in Public Service and Public Policies (Sustainability)?

First off, through my journey here at Arizona State University, I have specifically become interested in sustainability through food. I started off by realizing how backwards our food systems are (this is a completely separate topic, so I don't want to go off on a passionate tangent). Then I realized how much energy, such as fossil fuels, go into production of agriculture and meat. I really changed a lot of my own habits through these realizations. When I came across Local First Arizona's local food systems internship, I felt it was the missing piece to my puzzle.

My internship helped me piece together the fact that a sustainable, and healthy, food system, is predominately local. It has been such a great experience to learn about local food  systems hands on, with the community. Like I have mentioned so many times before, Farmer's Markets are truly a great place to experience these concepts. 

With all that said, local and sustainable foods fall into Public service, because helping the public provide themselves with healthy and local foods is a service. With that, helping to develop policies towards the promotion of local and healthy foods, as opposed to the easy entry of the market of fast food chains vs. grocery stores and markets, is something I would love to be a part of in the future. I have learned to work with the community, again falling into place of public service, and understanding how to make a change for the public through service and policies. 

Most importantly, I realized that you have to inspire and motivate the population to want to make a change, such as a sustainable movement. It is important to understand the population will continue to grow, so policies and service will have to be innovative and adapt. Starting with a social movement is truly the key component. 

Free Write- Food Day

I am sure most people haven't heard of Food Day. I know I hadn't until I started interning with Local First Arizona. 

In a nutshell, Good Food Day is a day that celebrates, and inspires people to change their eating habits by supporting healthy food, and changing our food policies. 

Here is a link to a blog I wrote about Food Day 2014, for Local First Arizona's website:

Food Day 2014: Join the Movement

For Food Day in Phoenix, many people gathered at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown Phoenix. If you didn't catch the correlation between food day and Cesar Chavez, I highly encourage you to look up Cesar Chavez! Anyways, of course Steve, Jaime, and I (all from LFA) set up a table at Food Day to do our part to inspire people. We took the initiative to talk to the public about local food, and how it benefits the consumer and the local economy. We weren't the only passionate folks there. There were plenty of local farms, CSAs, educators, and government presence there. It was a great gathering to celebrate good food, and the initiative to change our eating habits and food policies. 

It was definitely very inspiring to me to learn about this event, and see the day that the City of Phoenix put together to celebrate. One of my favorite parts of the day, was when everyone was given an apple, and at 12 noon, everyone took a bite. It was just one loud crunch of a group of people eating a healthy food item! For me personally, I just love events like these, because I really am passionate about knowing where my food comes from, and supporting a healthy food system. I am not sure why everyone wouldn't want to care more about what they are putting into their bodies!

Free Write- Farmer's Market

I previously wrote about my typical day at the office, so I thought it would be fun to write about what a typical day at the Farmer's market entailed. 

During the week, I completed internship hours at the office. Saturdays were also included in my work schedule, and I spent them working at Farmer's market, and occasionally some other local events which I will highlight later.

I worked various Farmer's markets including: Gilbert Farmer's Market, Downtown Phoenix Public Market Farmer's Market, and Central Farmer's Market.

The Farmer's Markets were fairly new to me. I had occasionally gone to Farmer's Markets, but did not fully appreciate them until I started interning for LFA.

Our role, as members of LFA, was to set up a table that would would help us communicate with the public. LFA actually had a term for this, it was called "tabling". To be honest, I was very nervous to take on a role like this, because communicating with the public about a public change was something that I had little experience in. 

Our table included items that represented our name, and who we were, pamphlets about the LFA organization, lunches and mixers, and also pamphlets of local businesses that were our members. We tailored our paper information to the location of the event we were at. For example, if we were at the Downtown Phoenix Farmer's Market, we highlighted local business in the area, and our pamphlets that pertained to the immediate area. 

Basically, these were the goals of the day:

-Grab the attention of the consumers

-Educate them about LFA and its cause

-Attract the consumers to sign up for the LFA newsletter to learn more, and get more involved with community events

-Engage the consumer to understand how their contributions to the local economy help

-Describe how we interact with our members to develop a local economy

-How our role correlates with the local Farmer's Market

-Answer Questions

-Hand out information

-Promote a local economy, and shopping locally

The Farmer's Markets were always fun, because you met so many different kinds of people, and mostly dealt with people who were already passionate about our cause. As nervous as I was in the beginning, I really learned how to communicate with the public about something I was passionate about, and it came easier than I had imagined. Really, it just came natural. It was more of a conversation, than a pitch. Not to mention, I was able to interact, and get to know other vendors at the Farmer's Market who were selling their local goods. Now those are some passionate people about a local economy, and shopping locally!

Also, I started shopping more at Farmer's Markets. I picked up all my produce, and some fun random items- such as the best BBQ sauce I had ever had! My dogs now eat all natural, and organic treats that I purchase at Farmer's Markets. All around this has been a unique learning experience from a  professional, educational, and personal stand point. 

Typical Day

Two out of three days, I work in the Local First Arizona office. The third day is spent working a local event within the community.

Each day I walk in to the office, I am eagerly greeted by the LFA staff. The team sits around one large rectangular table with their computers. This setup ensures constant collaboration, and a friendly environment amongst the team. I grab an open seat, and set up my lap top. 

Steve, the LFA local food systems coordinator, and my supervisor, gathers our local foods team. We always begin our group work with a team meeting. We discuss goals, ideas, game plans, and work to be done. I love that we start the day this way, because we always try to stay in the loop with what is going on, and make sure that our team is efficient.

The rest of the day is spent mostly working independently. Depending on the project I am working on, my independent work includes research, blogging, data entry, watching webinars, and preparing for our weekend events. 

Although most of my work is independent, my team is collectively working together to accomplish a project. We each tackle a portion of the project, and collaboratively piece it together to make an impacting message. Our work is dedicated towards reaching out and educating the consumers of our local economy. All the work inside the office, by all the LFA teams, really affects the overall goal we are trying to accomplish. 

LFA is leading a social movement, and there are endless opportunities for reaching out and communicating our goal. The work environment at LFA is very friendly, encouraging, and very collaborative. It definitely doesn't feel like work when I enter the LFA office. 

Good Food Finder

One item that all of us on the local food systems team have been especially proud of, is the Good Food Finder website. 

GoodFoodFinder.com

Good Food Finder is a searchable database of local food! We have researched hundreds of local businesses, and farms that are Arizona locally based and have local food items available to the consumer. We will have spent many hours entering as much information as possible into the database, in order to ensure a pleasant experience for the consumer. This project will always be ongoing, but we are very proud to have made the first big strides in its launch. 

So, for example, if you are having a BBQ, and you want to find corn, you simply enter 'corn' into the search engine, and a list of local farms, or stores that provide local corn will be displayed. 

Or, if you want want a dessert for a family event, and don't personally feel like baking it, simply search for 'desserts', and any business that provides desserts will be displayed.

The main goal of Good Food Finder is to provide a fast, easy, and convenient way for Arizona consumers to find their food, locally! I encourage everyone who views this post to click the link of the website, and do some browsing for food related items. You will be surprised what you find! 

During this project, I have enjoyed learning about all the local farms and businesses that provide local food. It is amazing how many that I had no idea existed, or wasn't quite aware of their local significance. 

Remember that making the local choice promotes sustainability, jobs, and our local economy!  

Local First Arizona

Local First Arizona is a non-profit organization that works relentlessly to educate the Arizona consumer to shift their money locally, to improve Arizona's economy, and keep its communities vibrant. 

Their efforts include community outreach, speeches from the founder and all of the organization's change leaders, educational newsletters and blog entries, events, and collaboration with local businesses. "Local First Arizona empowers individuals to build the life they want in their local community. Together we can create a stronger economy, a more vibrant community, and better job opportunities for Arizonans" [REF] Each individual within LFA is involved in the change process to shift the consumer's spending, and influence policies for the benefit of local businesses. 

At LFA, I am interning as the local food systems intern. I will help focus on the local food system, which includes local farms, and establishing the connection with local consumers. In the office I will be helping the change effort by researching and writing educational blog posts, watching webinars about local food related topics, helping with organization of events, and helping with the database for the Good Food Finder website. Each Saturday of the week I will be out at various events speaking to and educating the public about our mission, and ways to get more involved with local food. 

-CC

I am a senior working through my last semester at ASU, and am majoring in Public Service and Public Policy (Sustainability). To give a perspective of my journey to where I am now, I will go back a few years. 

I graduated from high school, as well as, cosmetology school in May 2008. After working a few years as a hair stylist I found myself having the desire to continue my education. When I started at Mesa Community College, I realized I had a strong interest in the sustainability field. After my first semester at MCC, I moved to Flagstaff to experience a different environment from Phoenix, where I was actually born and raised. I had an excellent three years in Flagstaff exploring a couple different sustainability majors at Coconino Community College, including sustainable green building, and of course the wonderful outdoors the town had to offer. I moved back to the valley at the end of 2013, and began my final stretch of college at Arizona State University. So, here I am, finishing my last semester of my Bachelor's degree. Currently, I am a full time student, and work full time as an assistant account manager at an interior construction firm, all while planning my wedding! I hate to admit it, but I think I  enjoy being busy. 

With that said, three things I am hoping to gain from my internship with Local First Arizona are:

1- Community involvement: I would appreciate learning how to be more actively involved with the public in regards to communicating and educating them about a meaningful purpose. I believe this is a great skill to have, especially when trying to make a societal change. 

2- I am hoping to learn more about what local means, and how it affects sustainability. 

3- I would like to gain the real world experience of a position that relates to my major. 

I look forward to the semester!

Cristy