Getting to know Highfields' new Community Compost Coordinator
Jenn is from Moretown, Vermont, and has been involved in grassroots community organizing for the last 15 years. She received her BA in Sociology & Anthropology from Concordia University in Montréal, where she pioneered the Sustainable Concordia project, a multi stakeholder university wide initiative to manage the university’s social, ecological and economic impacts. She coordinated the program for 5 years while community gardening, expanding her interest in urban permaculture, and raising two kiddies. In her spare time, Jenn volunteers with Montreal Birth Companions. At Highfields, Jenn spearheads the development of Close the Loop! community-based compost progams.
ROTTEN REPORT: What brings you to Highfields?
JENN DAVIS: Well I grew up in Vermont but i have been in Montréal for the last 12 years. I never meant to stay so long. I always missed it here. I’ve always figured myself for a country girl. But I had a lot of great opportunities and good projects to work on, so that is how it happened. I saw the posting for the Community Composter and I was amped because I really wanted to be working on agricultural issues, and I wanted to be learning about soil, and I wanted to be living in Hardwick, in particular. So right now I am feeling pretty lucky.
Vermont is so full of smart, resourceful folks that it is a real pleasure to see what people are up to.”
RR: How would describe your job at Highfields?
JENN: I actually didn’t know when I applied that it was going to be so good.
RR: What do you like about the work you’re doing? What do you find challenging?
JENN: I really enjoy meeting all of the people doing this work. They are incredibly inspiring. Vermont is so full of smart, resourceful folks that it is a real pleasure to see what people are up to. I also really like what Highfields is doing in both a practical and philosophical sense. Helping towns, or communities, find their local resources to deal with environemental impacts and issues of waste and fertility. I am impressed that Highfields puts an emphasis on the stakeholders of the town owning this. And that it is scaled to meet the needs of that population. Pretty cool.
RR: What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
JENN: Well I have two little kids, a handsome honey, and a dog - they are my favorite pastime these days. There doesn't seem to be any time left after that. I like gardening and making things, and used to do that more. I like riding my bike around, playing in the woods, and swimming in the river - my kids like that too. In the last year started keeping bees in the city, and volunteering birth companion services to ladies in need. I am really excited about both of those things right now.
RR: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
JENN: I would like to be learning how to farm.
RR: Besides community organizing for a nonprofit, what job would you most like to do, and why?
JENN: I would like to be a farmer. When I was a teenager I was working in barns and on farms, and I remember this one day we were haying in the hot sun, and this guy I worked for, lecturing my young self on life. He said, “Jenny, look how beautiful this is. This is fantastic. You have to like your work. You are going to spend the majority of your life doing it.” And I remember thinking, I want to go swimming. I am itchy. What is this guy talking about? He is broke and working like a dog. And now I think, yeah, he is outside, working hard, thinking hard, surrounded by and creating things of great beauty and importance. And he is his own boss. That sounds like where I want to be.
RR: What job would you least like to do, and why?
JENN: I really wouldn't want to do anything that would bore me to death. I also wouldnt want to have to shovel out old septic systems. I saw my Dad do that once, and I remember thinking, geez, I am glad I am the kid.