Workdays
We have workdays at Emma Prusch Park every Saturday and Wednesday. On each workday we do tasks such as planting, weeding, composting, harvesting, and more. You don’t have to have any previous gardening experience, we will show you what to do. If you do have some gardening experience, we would love to learn from you! All volunteers are encouraged to take home some food, up to one grocery bag per person. Work In = Food Out. The rest of the food we grow is donated to Martha’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen in San Jose, or sold at our sliding-scale Farmstand. There is no need to sign up, and all ages are welcome.
Our potluck lunch is a great chance to unwind from the day and get to know your fellow farmers. Please bring something to share – this can be as simple as a few pieces of fruit or a loaf of bread, or as elaborate as you like.
If you are a student looking to satisfy community service hours, just let us know when you come and we will be happy to sign your paperwork.
RAIN POLICY: If it is raining heavily we will cancel the workday. If it is on and off rain we are still on. We will post all rain cancellations on the front page of the website by 8am.
Saturdays
10am – 12:30: Work
12:30 – 1:30: Potluck Lunch
Wednesdays
2:00pm – 4:30pm: Work
Tuesdays and Thursdays
8:30am – 10am: Harvest Time (entire harvest will be donated to Martha’s Kitchen)
What to Wear/Bring
For your safety and comfort, it is important that you bring certain things when participating in a workday:
- Mandatory: Closed-toe shoes or boots
- A hat and sunscreen
- Water bottle
- Recommended: Long sleeved shirts, long pants, a bag to bring food home in
- For the potluck: Food to share, plate, cup, and fork
- If you are under 18, bring a signed Volunteer Service Agreement. Adults can bring one or sign at the workday.
You can also bring your kitchen scraps to feed our worm bins. Our worms like to eat veggie scraps, with no meat or dairy.
How to Find Us
Click here to see a map of our location in the park. (Thanks Nick!)
The address of Emma Prusch Park is:
647 South King Road
San Jose CA 95116
Get directions here.
When you first enter the park, you will see community gardens on each side. This is not where we are, so keep going down the long driveway. At the back right corner of the main parking lot, there is another road that keeps going. If you are driving, you can park there along the fence. At the end of the parking spaces by the grey building there is a gate. Go through it and look for us on the right side of the grey building. If you get lost at anytime on the way to a workday, call us at 408-905-PEAS (7327).
Groups
Groups of 8 or less are welcome to join our workdays without notice. If you have 8-15 in your group you are welcome to sign up to attend one of our workdays, contact us for scheduling (info@veggielution.org). If you are planning to bring youth younger than 13, there needs to be 1 adult for every 1 or 2 youth.
If you have a larger group we may be able to schedule a separate workday with you, contact us for details at info@veggielution.org
Workday Leaders
Workday Leaders are the folks who lead small groups of other volunteers during workdays. Anyone who has been to a few workdays already and is ready to help out even more is encouraged to become one. Workday Leaders make it possible to get everything done on a workday. With 20-40 volunteers out on an average Sunday, it is vital that we have a few WLs around to be in charge of different tasks. We especially need a few people who speak other languages, like Spanish or Vietnamese. You don’t have to know a lot about gardening, but you do have to be willing to learn. You will only get put in charge of tasks that you are comfortable leading.
To become a Workday Leader:
- Attend at least 2 workdays as a regular volunteer.
- Attend a Workday Leader Training. These are held periodically. Check the calendar or email us if you are interested. We will hold a training sooner if we know there is someone interested in doing it.
- Sign up to help with at least 2 workdays per month. For those workdays, you need to attend the workday planning meeting which starts a half hour before the workday. During that meeting we talk about what needs to get done during that workday, and who will be in charge of what.
