As the Seattle Area Peace Corps Association (SEAPAX) explores opportunities to have an impact through continued service, they have sought out partners with aligned values who are doing good work both internationally and locally. For several years SEAPAX has partnered with World Relief Western Washington to support their refugee resettlement program. In response to recommendations from refugees, World Relief developed the idea of the Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden. Many areas in South King County fall within the USDA classification of a food desert (an area where more than a third of the population has no car and is more than a mile from a grocery store), and the refugee community expressed common desire for space to grow culturally appropriate food and build relationships through gardening. In partnership with Hillside Church, and with thousands of hours of volunteer labor, World Relief turned under-used, and often-flooded parking lot into 50 garden plots.
Since 2018 refugee families have come, and for a small fee, accessed a garden plot to plant the the kinds of food they were missing from home. For the last several years SEAPAX members come together twice each year and help to put in the beds to sleep in the fall and wake them up again in the spring. To World Relief, they are rock stars, because you just tell a Peace Corps volunteer – “Here’s a shovel. Go use it over there” – and they figure it out. SEAPAX members appreciate the professionalism and organization of the World Relief garden team and the flexibility of being able to volunteer for a few hours, but to have a high impact. It also offers valued chance to be together, and swap stories while helping out.
After funding a Peace Corps Partnership Project community garden in Senegal, SEAPAX was looking for new grant opportunity. Realizing they didn’t have to look any further than their own back yard, SEAPAX began brainstorming with World Relief about how to deepen their relationship by funding improvements to the garden. A World Relief summer intern offered the brilliant suggestion of building kids zone in the garden so refugee families could bring their kids along with them while they worked in their plots.
The Learning and Play Zone will provide a safe space within the community garden where refugee and immigrant gardeners’ kids can engage in free and natural play, developing social-emotional learning skills while their parents cultivate healthy foods for the family. The Kids’ Zone will be an enclosed and shaded area with soft landscaping and natural play structures, raised garden beds, terraced areas, picnic tables, and natural play elements like log rounds and a balance beam. SEAPAX expects their seed money for the project to leverage nine times their donation in contributions from other World Relief donors.
SEAPAX president John Berry sums it up this way: “I feel like at this moment in time, it’s important for us to lead by example. It’s important for us to be mindful of those who are most vulnerable and to show folks that Peace Corps volunteers are still engaged.” The Kids Zone project built and expanded the existing relationship between SEAPAX and World Relief and collaboratively developed an idea to make a difference for refugee families. Kudos to SEAPAX and World Relief for their ongoing work!