Rainier Vista Multicultural Celebration and Ground Breaking

Crowd watching cultural presentations at the Rainier Vista Multicultural Celebration

This past Saturday, I attended the Rainier Vista Multicultural Celebration. The celebration was a big block party for all of the Rainier Vista community to meet and celebrate their diversity. It was a very enjoyable event that was well attended by the neighborhood. I was there to meet everyone and talk with them about the progress of the farm. We also had the ever popular seed art for children and youth. It was great to meet many of the folks in the neighborhood.

Seed art at the Multicultural Celebration.

There were several cultural demonstrations including a performance by the Rainier Vista Khmer Dance group (Cambodian folk dancing), East African cultural demonstrations including a coffee ceremony, and a break dancing performance followed by workshops from The Good Foot. It really is impressive and refreshing to see how diverse the neighborhood is. The area lives up to its name as the most diverse zip code in the country. I feel very privileged to get to work with such a variety of people. It's a well established fact that the more diverse an ecosystem is the more resilient it is, and I strongly believe the same is true of people and community.

Part of the news that I gladly shared with everyone and the celebration was that construction has started on the Seattle Community Farm! Last Friday, I went for a final site walk through with the contractor doing the big earth moving and terracing, with staff from the Seattle Housing Authority, and the Department of Neighborhoods. We fleshed out a couple small last minute details with Monday the 27th as the official groundbreaking day.

Breaking ground at the Seattle Community Farm.

This is very exciting for us that everything is coming together! It will take them a couple of weeks to finish the terracing and then we will be set up to get the farm up and running. Because it is late in the year for planting, we will mostly be cover cropping to increase the organic matter in the soil as well as installing compost bins and a tool shed.

-Scott Behmer
Farm Coordinator, Seattle Community Farm