Picture this: a young, energetic woman in her early twenties driving a Ford F150 to town loaded with boxes and boxes of overflowing, beautiful, rainbow-colored tomatoes in July. She is headed to the farmers market in Logan with her bounty, an entire month earlier than the other farmers would sell their tomatoes. People flock to her booth to buy these precious summer gems early, and best of all, her tomatoes didn’t come from out of the state or the county. They were grown only two miles away in the high tunnel green houses at Utah State University. Meet Britney Hunter, Horticulture Extension Faculty at Utah State University.
Britney didn’t grow up with the food movement and food justice in the forefront of her mind, but she developed a deep passion for plants and gardening when she worked at a plant nursey in high school. What fascinated her more than the plants were the people and how much people valued plants and being outside in nature. She thought there must be something about gardening if it could bring this much joy to others. Britney decided horticulture would be her career.
While she worked at the nursery, she decided to go Utah State University and get a two-year degree, which soon turned into a four-year bachelor degree. In her final year, she worked on a project managing food grown in high tunnel green houses, and what surprised her was how much food she was growing (approximately 600 lbs. harvested in a single day), how easy it was, and the accessibility that local people in Logan had to this fresh food.
WCG is fortunate to claim Britney as a past workshop instructor, teaching our Soil Science and Water-wise Gardening classes. What Britney admires most about WCG workshops is that people are eager to learn and implement the knowledge in their own gardens, and she also knew to come prepared because the WCG workshop crowd would be asking her challenging questions. “Also the diversity of people attending the classes is impressive. There is a huge age range, and new and experienced gardeners all learning from the instructors and each other,” Britney shares. “People attending the workshops kept me on my toes so I would have to come prepared!”
But Britney’s involvement with WCG begun long before she started teaching some of our workshops. Back in the day, she assisted Claire Uno, previous Executive Director, with the Spring Plant Sale marketing. She felt welcomed and supported by the tight-nit WCG staff. “WCG’s organizational environment encouraged its interns to bring their talents, and in return, WCG would share their knowledge,” Britney speaks of her internship with WCG, and she recalls once you become involved with WCG, you then know everyone in the gardening community.
But what impresses Britney the most about WCG is the presence it has in the community. WCG is welcoming, active, and inclusive. If someone wants to start a garden, WCG is there to provide support. “While USU can provide the scientific-based research, WCG provides the volume to the voice of the people. WCG is the front of social change for food and they don’t stop speaking to this – that is cool!” Britney shares. She remembers a time when grocery stores didn’t offer local produce because these stores wanted to maintain their partnerships with larger farms. But WCG kept the conversation going about healthy, organic, local food and now the grocery stores meet this demand.
In wrapping up my conversation with Britney, I asked her what she would like to change in the future of food justice and the local food movement. She mentions two concerns: First, awareness about food waste needs to be discussed more. Second, Britney is excited about the exploding support of local food through farmers markets, CSAs, and growing your own. “We are at a great time where there is intense interest for local produce, so we need to actively keep this movement alive by supporting local growers.”
Thanks Britney Hunter for being a part of Wasatch Community Gardens!