Ms. Lai is a relatively new member of the Danny Woo Community Garden, with just one year under her belt as one of our elder gardeners. But don't underestimate her growing skills, Ms. Lai was a career farmer in her home country of Hong Kong.
       After moving to Seattle in 1993, she fell very homesick for her friends and family back in Hong Kong. She took whatever opportunity she could to visit home and stay connected to her roots. Through the years however, she was able to build a community within Chinatown/International District and noticed many of her new friends were growing at the Danny Woo Community Garden. In 2015, she joined them as one of our gardeners. Most recently, she was delighted to relocate to a plot that neighbors one of her closest friends of over 20 years. Ms. Lai treats gardening as her daily form of exercise. She loves planting potatoes, lettuce, and squash.

This week's story was authored by youth from ACRS's Job Readiness Program who have been working alongside our elder gardens all spring. Youth developed interview questions, conducted interviews with the elder gardeners, and translated their stories into English. This was a special project as part of the intergenerational programming in the garden.

Gee, how time flies! This summer has been a whirlwind experience for the garden as we teamed up with InterIm CDA's Wilderness Inner-city Leadership Development (WILD) Youth program to roll out a six-week food justice curriculum. This was the first year the garden developed a curriculum that allowed us to dialogue with WILD Youth to intentionally dialogue about oppression, food, and identity. Throughout the summer we explored issues of hunger, racism, homelessness, and food systems through interactive, youth-led programming.

We are so grateful to the thirteen WILD Youth for giving us the space to pilot this curriculum and learn alongside us. We hope to publish the curriculum here once we integrate youth feedback and reformat our plans into something downloadable. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out the wonderful highlight video produced by our intern and curriculum co-developer, An An, in addition to some of our favorite photos from the summer!

        Mr. Liu started planting at the Danny Woo Community Garden 4 years ago. Mr. Liu really enjoys gardening. As a resident of Chinatown/International District, Mr. Liu often visits the garden twice a day whenever he feels bored at home. He is happiest when he is able to harvest from his garden, especially when his beans are ready. Mr. Liu likes spring time the most because it marks the beginning of the growing season.

Mr. Liu started growing at the Danny Woo Community Garden three years ago, through the encouragement of his children. After a series of health ailments, he decided to look for a place to be more physically active in his neighborhood. Working in the garden everyday has been a important part of his journey to restoring his health. Mr. Liu is often in the garden with his wife, who loves to grow alongside him.

This week's story was authored by youth from ACRS's Job Readiness Program who have been working alongside our elder gardens all spring. Youth developed interview questions, conducted interviews with the elder gardeners, and translated their stories into English. This was a special project as part of the intergenerational programming in the garden.