Backbone Executive Director Bill Moyer interviews Caitlin Ames of Matsuda Farm.
About Caitlin:
Caitlin Ames works for the Vashon Maury Island Land Trust as the Manager of Matsuda Farm. They hail from New York but have been on the west coast for 14 years, the last 7 of which have been spent farming on Vashon. At Matsuda Farm, Caitlin cultivates vegetables for the island with a goal of contributing to the creation of a more equitable food system here. Even though the focus is on veggies right now, Caitlin hopes to eventually get back to their love for dairying and animal husbandry in the future.
In 2020 when the COVID pandemic began, Backbone Campaign set up a volunteer program at Matsuda Farm with safety protocols, a paid organizer and sign up process, and even infrastructure. Over 500 volunteer hours were completed at the farm. Volunteers who became members of the Vashon Island Time Exchange, our community time bank, were able to be credited some of those hours into their time bank account.
The Community Teach-In is a project of the Vashon Island Time Exchange, to build connections, learn from each other, and increase our community resilience.
If you haven't yet joined the time bank, sign up for free at VashonTime.org.