Let's be friends!
It started backstage at a Flaming Lips show - or maybe it was on stage performing with my girl low-fi rock trio. Music has influenced my path forever.
I found my first community in NYC through the underground music scene. It's the first time I realized the true power of passion in order to build what you want in life. Want to go on tour? Book it yourself and figure it out along the way. I knew I wanted to good in the world, I just didn't know how. Around this time, the lead singer of The Flaming Lips offered me life advice: sometimes the most impact we can have in the world is to think about what your direct community needs. I loved NYC and my fellow NYers and fresh food access was an issue. I joined Americorp VISTA at Just Food, a food justice non-profit, and built resources for Community Supported Agriculture (insert link to a blog post on CSA) groups. Addicted to the local food movement, I joined Red Jacket Orchards and started the first fruit only CSA in NYC while also working at their farm stands. The orchard had a bad growing season and I was out of a job. At this time in 2011, the local food movement was slowly growing in NYC and my dream job didn't exist anywhere in the world. Advised by my mom (mom's always know best), I started Local Roots with no business training (but lots of ideas and passion) using money I saved up teaching the violin in HS. Local Roots and Wen-Jay both believe that food connects us to each other, our land, our health, and a healthier food system and small businesses can change the world. I love home style cooking, red velvet Peter Pan donuts, hiking upstate and in Japan, architecture, museums, meeting strangers and diving deep into my friendships. Inspirations
Wendell Berry Barragan Blood Orange James Turrell FKA Twigs Saint Saens Osho Science of soil |