My first visit to FoodChain

The FoodChain is located in downtown Lexington right off West Sixth Street next to Jefferson Street. Living in Lexington my whole life, one would think that I would have been to this part of town before, but sadly I have not. It was a very interesting area as the community right down the road from FoodChain consists of a Section 8 housing on one side of the street and large, "old money" homes on the other side, quite a unique sight and contrast. It was Thursday, February 18, that I was able to go and visit for the first time for the Volunteer Orientation 101. The group consisted of two other students from my CIS class, an employee from the University of Kentucky, another woman who just wanted to get involved, and Anne our wonderful guide. I did not start out on the best foot as I got lost trying to find the actual location and held up the group for just a few minutes, but once someone pointed me in the right direction the guide was smooth sailing from there. Our guide Anne, was a very welcoming and informative guide. You could tell how much Anne cared about the place and believed in its mission as a whole just from listening to the way she talked. She made me want to get involved just from her willing heart of being willing to serve and her passion. On staff, at the FoodChain there are only four people including Anne so they are undoubtedly committed to the cause. Here are the lovely ladies that run such a great organization and keep the place running efficiently and productively:

retrieved from http://www.foodchainlex.org

Now let's move on to the tour itself. I will be honest, I had low expectations going in. I expected it to be about an hour long process where we would be sitting and being talked at where I learned very little. This is NOT at all what the group experienced. The tour or "Volunteer Orientation 101" went great. It was extremely interactive and beneficial. Anne walked us around the building and showed us all the different facets of what made the FoodChain run. She gave us a run down on the whole process of how aquaponics actually work. This was very helpful for me as I had already read on their website what aquaponics was, but Anne explained it in a way that made sense to me and I understood. Essentially they have six huge tanks of about 7,000 gallons of water total with large tuna fish inside each tank. They take the waste from the fish to fertilize the plants, but they do not take the exact waste from the fish because this would actually be toxic to the plants and kill them, but rather they have a system that filters this waste and turns it into something that is beneficial for the plants and helps them grow. The plants then in turn filter out the water that is then transported back into the tanks for fresh water for the tilapia. Actually hearing this system explained and then being able to witness how it truly worked was astonishing to me. I loved it! We then continued to walk around the different parts of the building and saw how everything else worked. We all then sat down with Anne and she spoke to us about opportunities to serve. A lot of the times she has for regular volunteer options did not work with any of our schedules as students so she was very flexible and willing to work around our schedules to allow us to serve. I am going to begin to serve in giving tours of the facility on saturdays and help harvest things in the aquaponics farm on Thursdays. Overall it was a great experience and I cannot wait to get back and begin volunteering and serving at such a unique and beneficial organization. 

Fish Tanks with Tilapia
retrieved from http://www.foodchainlex.org