My name is Erica Fong and I’m so excited to be joining the UW Farm as the new Americorps Education and Outreach Lead for the 2024-25 school year!

Primarily, my role will be supporting urban farming and food systems education activities. In addition, I will be managing relationships with community groups. 

I’ll mainly be out in the field during our volunteer shifts, so stop by to say hi! You will also catch me working on creating and organizing farm materials such as the Weekly Dirt newsletter and promotional content.

I was born and raised in San Francisco, and my Chinese-American family has roots in the city for four generations. I love to draw/craft, go on long walks (urban and nature), cook, skate, and chill with my cat Gravy. I’ve been in Seattle for almost a year and it has been a great adventure exploring a new city and learning how to live in and garden alongside the changing seasons (something SF doesn’t really have).

I graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2021 with a major in Computer Science and minor in Education. After graduating, I worked as a software engineer at a company called SoundHound for almost 3 years.

Outside of work I found personal fulfillment and connection through volunteering at local community gardens and working with a mutual aid group to provide meals and resources for folks in the U-District. I am passionate about food sovereignty, and building spaces where people can gather, learn, contribute and experience joy together. I struggled quite a bit with the feelings of wanting to try pursuing different interests, leaving the stability of my full-time job, and feeling worthy of being able to try anything else when my skills were limited in other fields. Ultimately, I knew deep down that I really wanted to try something new.

These interests and experiences brought me to this role at the UW Farm. In the few weeks I’ve been here, I’ve been able to learn so much about how food gets from the ground to our kitchens and about how people-powered the farm is! I am so grateful for this opportunity and excited to see what the year holds for me.

I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned and taken with me so far:

1. The farm relies on its amazing volunteers and staff

The farm can only be the magical place it is because of all the wonderful people that contribute their energy to it. We rely on dedicated volunteers who show up ready to learn and jump into any task. As gardening columnist Allen Lacy, says in his book Home Ground, “to garden is inescapably to be involved with other people, to be indebted”. It has been a beautiful experience to connect and build relations with people as we work with our hands together towards our shared goals. Thank you to everyone that joins us! Pictured above are: our volunteers with their apple and squash harvest.

2. So much effort is put into a single veggie for it to get to my plate

It has been extremely cool to get an understanding of the procedures and see the care taken to prepare crops to be distributed. While I knew that it wasn’t magic that makes things like bagged lettuce and bunched herbs appear at the grocery store, I didn’t have a clear picture of all the steps. I’ve learned about how we harvest safely, sort and select, wash and prepare, and store and distribute. Seeing these processes make me feel more appreciative of every single product I consume and encourages me to support local producers. Pictured above are: our volunteers and staff trellising cucumbers, the farm manager demonstrating washing beets, and the packing of our CSA.

3. Every day I can always find one new, beautiful thing

While I knew that working on a farm would be full of beautiful images of fresh veggies and wide skies, I wasn’t expecting to find so much beauty in even the small things. I am entranced by the little bugs in the soil, the roots of weeds we pull up and the dirt stuck on my skin. There is so much to appreciate about getting to be on the farm, and I’m trying to soak in every bit! Pictured above are: a praying mantis hanging out while we sorted Walla Walla onions, a to-go bouquet of dahlias and snapdragons, and the cute cross-section of the Yellowfin squash.