Interpretive writing piece about my present exploits in national service

This summer I took an online class on Interpretive Writing. As a result of my completion of this course, I decided to write a brief interpretive piece on my present work that I have been at for the last year as a way of both informing my readership of my present activities and of starting to use the knowledge I have gained from this course.

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Gardening is a dirty business. As we develop new gadgets and technologies that keep us happy indoors in our sanitized little worlds, there are those of us who are still outside getting dirty, because food just does not appear without some work. Though, most of the time, it's fun. It takes time, planning, planting, and tending to get a seed to sprout, mature, and begin to produce a product that we can eat. Think about some of your favorite foods for a second. Which ones are fruits or vegetables? What foods are meat or dairy? Do not the animals that meat and dairy come from eat vegetables? Food is a very important topic to many of us. We are born hungry and will be hungry in a matter of time, so it is important to have food to eat. The sweat on our brow, muddy boots, dirt under out nails, and full baskets proclaim our good work in making that happen for some people.

Last year when I worked at Living History Farms, the gardens were an important part of the exhibits there. Gardening was important for healthy lives in the past just as eating healthy is today. I learned a lot about growing and resources to use from Living History Farms and I was able to apply them to what I do now at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. I am an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) and I give a year of my life in national service. I recruit, train, and manage volunteers for the Food Bank's quarter acre garden. I choose the growing strategy for the garden and thus selected to plant fruits and vegetables that the Food Bank does not get a lot of donations for, and pick a wide variety for people to enjoy once the produce is harvested and sent to the onsite pantry. Bright tomatoes, supple beans, hearty peppers, brightly colored Swiss Chard, leafy kale, spicy radishes, petite peas, prolific squash, and heavy watermelons are some of the things we grow.

Why do we grow a garden at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank? 

We grow a garden because we care about people. 1 in 5 children are food insecure in Northeast Iowa; that means that you probably know someone's child that does not know when they will next eat a meal (if you are living here in Iowa). Also 10% of senior citizens in the Northeast use the Food Bank. Some have difficulty living on a a fixed income; others are shut-ins and cannot provide for themselves. At a time in our history that we have the most amount of food in America, people cannot get enough to eat in some communities, or have access to healthy foods. Something must be done to help these people.

Ryan with some of the produce; Georgia 

collard greens in the foreground, Toscano 

kale behind me, and Bright Lights 

Swiss Chard after and Marigolds beyond.

Hunger affects us all, for we all get hungry. Perhaps you can recall a time when you were hungry. Were you agitated? Weak? Unfocused? Image being like that for a week or more. This is the reality of some people not just here in Northeast Iowa, but all over the United States, and all over the world. We all hunger, which is one of the traits that unites all living things, yet there are things that we can do to help. September is Hunger Action Month. Orange is the color that we wear to raise awareness to bring the cause of fighting food insecurity. I garden to fight this, to provide nutritious food, but I also teach students how to grow their own food, and next year I intend to prompt the next Garden Coordinator to teach classes for our pantry clients. You may have heard a phrase,"Give a man a fish and he will eat for the day, but teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a life-time." I can do that same thing, but with growing food. But that is what I can do; there are ways that you can help too if growing food is not what you do. As I am nearing the end of my term of service with AmeriCorps VISTA, I can see how I have grown as a gardener, and as a person who cares for people. What I can say is this: find out how to help others, and maybe it will grow on you.  

Produce from the Garden

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Break down

Categories for structure and content are in blue, my answers are in red.

Possible Audience: Diverse adult audience

Great interpretive stories include three things:

• Memorable character development of a tangible resource at the site.
• The intangible meanings and/or universal concepts related to the tangible resource.
• Some degree of conflict or tension.

Outline of interpretive concepts:
Gardening, food, work - tangible
Hunger Action Month - intangible
Hunger/eating and helping others - universal
Food insecurity - conflict

To identify the good stories at your site, consider answering the following questions about the resources at your site:

• Is there conflict between people and natural systems? Yes, unequal access or ability to obtain proper amounts of food.
• Is there a resolution or non-resolution of conflict? Non-resolution, the problem continues.
• Are there consequences of action or in-action? Implied consequences of inaction, positive consequences for action.

Interpretive writing should have Goals and should do the following:

• Describe broad desired outcomes.
• Connect to the website's purpose and significance.
• Connect to the interests of the visitor.

Goal of the the Interpretive piece: To inform readers as to my recent activities, display interpretive writing techniques and concerns, and raise awareness to a great cause.

Objective statements should:

• Clearly describe what you hope the reader will be able to know, do or feel as a result of the writing.
• Use action verbs.
• Allow you to get a sense of whether you are accomplishing your goals.
• Include specific, measurable outcomes that could be evaluated.
• Objectives for interpretive products should include specific measures of the interpretive outcomes.
• When writing your objectives, be sure to include interpretive outcomes instead of purely knowledge based objectives.

Objectives of this interpretive piece:

The reader will be able to identify where I have been working for the last year.

The reader will be able to state some of the produce grown in the garden.

The reader will be able to state some reasons why gardening is important.

The reader will be provoked into making a decision about food insecurity.

Themes: Themes reveal the topic's relevance to the audience. Themes examine something meaningful about the resource, are relevant to the audience, and provide opportunities for the reader to find their own meanings in the topic of the writing. Your theme will be relevant to your readers if you include a universal concept and answer the questions "So what?" and "What's in it for them?"

"Ryan's experience gardening for the Food Bank has helped him see how gardening helps the hungry, food insecure people of Northeast Iowa, and wants others see this too."

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By breaking down an interpretive piece, the main basic components of interpretive writing can be seen and examined. I hope that you can see now what I did and how I did it and why it is important to answer some of the tougher questions, like, "So what?" Making a topic relevant and meaningful is not easy, but is essential for making it worthwhile. I cannot write to inform people and expect those people to care if it does not touch them or appeal to them. I hoped you liked this brief interpretive piece and I may spend some time to make a few more here and there.