March: Community Connections
From the desk of Harvest Foundation President Kate Keller
When I arrived at the Harvest Foundation back in July 2020, the team put together an onboarding and community outreach plan. As you can guess, many of the activities in that plan weren’t able to happen due to the ebbs and flows of the pandemic. Unfortunately, that meant fewer opportunities for me to meet community partners in person and to get to know each other better.
One of those plans was regular small meeting opportunities that we called Coffee with Kate. Two things to know about me are that I like coffee and I like to chat, so this structure was perfect. As time passed, we felt that these types of discussions were still needed, so this past month, we hosted four Coffee with Kate gatherings.
We felt it was time to open our doors and invite people back into the office. While the meetings provided the avenue for me to get to know or know better some of our community partners, what was really clear is that people missed being together.
I know that isn’t earth-shattering news after the past two years, but it was palpable how much people enjoyed being together and building relationships. The coffee time was scheduled to last an hour and sometimes lasted two. Participants expressed the need for reconnection in so many ways.
Harvest is taking that seriously and looking for creative and innovative ways to build connectivity and community relationships. We welcome your ideas. Also, if you would like to meet for a cup of coffee, I’m happy to join you at one of our local shops and get to know you better.
