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Nutrition is the mission at Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center. The National City nonprofit aims to grow a healthy community free from diet-related health conditions through organic gardening, environmental stewardship, and nutrition education. Olivewood’s 6.85-acre property is filled with flourishing crops of verdant veggies and a community kitchen where “kitchenistas,” including as Antolin Rodríguez, use what they’ve learned about diet and nutrition via Olivewood’s transformative Cooking for Salud program to inspire community members to rethink how their eating and take control of their health.
What made you want to become a volunteer for Olivewood Gardens?
I wanted to be part of Olivewood Gardens to support community awareness projects (especially those for children and youth) about the importance of healthy eating. I see many people, of all ages, suffering from diseases caused by obesity or malnutrition; that moves me to do something for education in favor of choosing a healthy lifestyle. For this reason, I also consider it very important to support Olivewood Gardens in raising awareness among families about the damages that come from eating foods with low nutritional value, as well as those with a high level of toxicity (processed foods that include chemicals such as artificial flavors and colors, etc.); also including highly sugar-sweetened beverages.
Is training required?
To become a kitchenista volunteer for Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center, I had to take the Cooking for Salud training (eight classes of three hours each over eight weeks). Apart from other training, as I’m passionate about self-study, for many years before approaching Olivewood Gardens, I have researched and learned through books and documentaries. As I learned, I understood the cultural and historical consequences of a bad diet and the benefits of a good one.
What’s the time commitment?
I have chosen to be self-employed in order to have more availability to, as a volunteer, support projects with which I identify, those that have a clear and valuable mission. Whenever Olivewood Gardens offers an opportunity to volunteer, I am happy to participate. I could create my own organization, but why duplicate? I find it best to support a cause with which I identify.
What is the best day to volunteer?
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Although, when I am at Olivewood Gardens, I experience each day as the best to volunteer, I have to admit that the graduation day of each Cooking for Salud training, when new members of the community graduate as kitchenistas, that is a great day, that is the best volunteer day. That day we can see the fruit of the work of all kitchenistas working as a team for the same mission and vision: more kitchenistas improving, through healthy eating, not only our quality of life, but also that of our families, in our homes, and in our communities. Another best day was when we, the kitchenistas team, were guest speakers for high school students. Being a speaker on behalf of Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center is a wonderful experience; because I identify with and beneficially practice our mission, those are my favorite words to spread.
What’s the biggest challenge with volunteering?
My biggest challenge while volunteering is being able to transmit the importance of a good attitude to other volunteers. People who emit joy, enthusiasm, love, and peace are the strength and balance that sustain and complete our team. When two or more volunteers meet under the same common denominator (love for the mission and vision of a project), the energy, frequency, and vibration of the place is the sum of the synchronization of the entire group (those from high go low and those from low go high). Fortunately, all of the Olivewood Gardens volunteers are sensitive and loving; and, if someone ever does not express himself in that way, we talk to him or her to support him or her to feel better for the good of everyone and everything.
Who should volunteer for the Olivewood Gardens?
Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center is an extraordinary place to volunteer, therefore, it is important that anyone who wants to volunteer with this organization recognize himself as an extraordinary person. To be an Olivewood Gardens volunteer, you need courage, compassion, sensitivity, vision, and confidence. Valuing and trusting oneself in order to trust and value others. Because the highest point of love is compassion, it is important to be a sensitive and compassionate person. If the plants themselves can be stimulated by our presence and by treating them with love (the energy or vibration of our attitude), how much more so are the people: the children, the youth, and the families that we want to benefit from our work. It is very important to be a visionary in order to see in the short and long term the fruit of our time and work as volunteers; that is a great source of energy and motivation. Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center is a great place to recognize, develop, and strengthen the extraordinary in oneself.
What are your feelings as a volunteer while answering these questions?
Gratitude is another important and necessary quality of a volunteer. As a volunteer, I find it very rewarding and fair to acknowledge and thank each of the Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center staff members; along with being extremely kind and generous people with us volunteers, I understand that all the work they do is the sum and complement of the result of our work as volunteers. Thank you very much Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center for creating and offering us the opportunity to improve, starting with ourselves, the health and well-being of our family at home and that of other families in the community.
