Julie Mount first came to Veggielution with friends volunteering through Our City Forest. Years later, Julie is still here and continues to volunteer.
She works as the graphic designer for the Santa Clara Library system but loves getting her hands dirty. “I started volunteering because I was suffering from a dirt deficit,” Julie told us. “Where I live, I don’t really have a place to garden. I love where I work, but sometimes have nothing concrete to point to at the end of the day. I volunteer so I can point to rows of veggies and say, ‘I had a hand in that.’”
The reward of hands-on labor and hard work has kept her coming back, and her contributions are much appreciated. At Veggielution, “I found more than dirt,” she said. “I found an amazing community of people committed to their neighbors and the land.” She enjoys the personal connection to other engaged people with the same values of simple, local food and the agricultural history of this valley, and she says it contributes to her positive outlook.
When she began volunteering, she found herself fond of weeding but now claims to be more well rounded. She enjoys the variety of tasks at Veggielution: spreading mulch, seeding, planting, and harvesting.
Being a San Jose native, she finds it spectacular that there are committed people who love and tend to the land tucked underneath a major freeway. Seeing Veggielution transform a heretofore-wasted land into a fruitful and sustainable effort that produces such abundance has been, she says, “a powerful anti-depressant.”
Samantha Clark
Veggielution Intern
