Voluntaryism: Iowa Teen grew 7,000 pounds of veggies, then gave them all away

Lauren Schroeder was volunteering at a community food nonprofit when she was 14. As she filled bags with donated groceries, she noticed something that didn’t seem right:

by Cathy Free

There were plenty of canned and boxed goods, but she didn’t see anything fresh or green to give to families in need.

“I thought it would be great to change that,” said Lauren, now 17. “I wanted people to get the nutrition they needed from fresh vegetables.”

She told her parents that she wanted to start a garden on some of their farm acreage in Dixon, Iowa, so she could supply families with homegrown produce. She wanted to plant lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and zucchini.

The Schroeders plant soybeans and corn every year on their 150-acre farm, and Lauren knew there was room to plant other vegetables. Her mother was proud Lauren came up with the idea, she said, and wanted to support her.

“But I also had a little bit of the devil’s advocate on my shoulder, wondering, ‘Oh my gosh, how much work is this going to be?’” said Katie Schroeder, 44.

Plenty, in fact. But Schroeder soon learned that her daughter was up for it.

Lauren had raised rabbits and lambs in 4-H and her FFA club, but she had never tried her hand at planting vegetables on a large scale.

“I did a lot of research online to find out what worked and what didn’t, what plants needed shade, which ones needed more water and when the best time was to harvest each crop,” she said.

Lauren received a grant from the National FFA Organization — a youth organization that promotes agricultural education — to pay for seeds and gardening supplies. Then in the spring of 2022, she planted half-an-acre with 15 varieties of vegetables.

When the first green shoots appeared, “it was an exciting feeling,” she said.

That’s when the real work began.

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“Our summers are really hot and dry, so I had to water every day,” Lauren said. “Every day, it took about two or three hours before or after softball practice.”

When it came time to harvest, she learned that picking beans was the most challenging.

“I didn’t realize how much bending was required for green beans,” she said. “But they’re still my favorite vegetable.”

She especially loves them fried in butter for dinner.

Over the summer, she checked her crops daily for weeds and watered by hand, using two water tanks attached to a farm utility vehicle to repeatedly fill up her watering can, Lauren said.

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Campamento Tortuguero Playa Hermosa is a turtle sanctuary on Bonfil  Beach outside of Acapulco that rescues sea turtle eggs that would be likely destroyed by vehicles on the beaches or pilfered by tourists.   The sanctuary protects the eggs, hatches them and releases the babies into the ocean while protecting them from seagulls and other winged predators.  
The 35-year-old sanctuary is run by the mother/daughter duo of Monica and Michel Vallarino, who have helped educate the community and the tourists on the ecology of the turtles while simultaneously providing a refuge for puppies, kittens, ducks,  rabbits, and other wayward animals.
The Art of Liberty  Foundation hosted an annual fundraiser from 2018-2020 called the Art of  Liberty on the Beach (aKa The Turtle Party), where many of the leading artists in the liberty movement have rocked the sanctuary including Grant "Prezence" Ellman, Truniversal/Free Willow, Alais Clay, the  Freenauts, DJ Koala, DJ Ramiro Romani and ELA-mental among others.  
The sanctuary was devasted by Hurricane Otis, a category five hurricane that hit Acapulco and Bonfil Beach on November 2nd 2023. 

25% of Funds Raised Will Benefit Other Residents of Bonfil Beach

The Art of Liberty Foundation is organizing a fundraiser where 100% of the proceeds will go to direct relief.  The Vallarinos have agreed to share 25% of the proceeds with other Bonfil Beach residents in need to be distributed at their discretion.