Loco for LOCAL!

Loco for Local!!!
Walking through a Wal-Mart last summer, I came upon my favorite section of the entire corporate store, fruits and vegetables. While I was going through the variety (actually very limited with options) of fruits and vegetables such as bananas, cucumbers, strawberries, and lettuce, I turned to looked at the location where these wonderful healthy foods were made. For some odd reason, it surprised me. All of the fruits and vegetables, were not made in the local area, not up the street, not even in the state of North Carolina. These vegetables and fruits were grown somewhere in Florida, and even in a different country. As more Americans buy from corporate businesses and farms, the less people are purchasing from local farmers and local businesses. When I started my training at Full Cirlces Foundation, I had some sense of knowledge about community empowerment, community advocacy, and supporting the local community, but I had no idea about the significance and importance of supporting local businesses. Every time I purchased a forever 21 dress, a pair of Target earrings, and a Deer Park water bottle, I’ve always turned to a national corporate pharmacy, stores that exploit workers from having a descent pay and their right to a healthy workspace, and large farms that are mostly subsidized. This training knocked some sense into me about knowing how local businesses work and learning how to advocate and fight against a system where capitalism is the value for everyone.
    After training, I felt strongly about supporting local businesses and all of the benefits that came along with teaching others about them. At Full Cirlces Foundation Strong camps, we have a goal to teach the young girl campers about social-entrepreneurship: a different and amazing way to change the world while fixing and improving the current system through  finding sustainable solutions. Edger and passionate, I started reading and searching about this awesome and unique idea of local businesses and advocacy. I’ve never thought that combining the two concepts could change the world and advance humanity, but it really can for several reasons: products are safe, workers are treated fairly and equally, and everyone feels empowered. Now that I’ve learned how to appreciate and embrace social entrepreneurship, it was time to teach the campers!
    During the Strong Home camp, the girls learned how to love the environment, nature, and the outdoors but most importantly (I thought), they had an opportunity to make flower bombs and sell them in an event that Downtown Raleigh has every first Friday. A local business came in to volunteer and teach the young campers about the benefits of flower bombs. Flower (seed) bombs are made of wildflower seeds, clay, compost, dirt, and water. The campers, along with the camp instructors packaged them and sold the flower bombs at different prices for the first Friday event. The girls made a good deal of money. It was beautiful to see them interact with the public with confidence and some of the first graders with attitude while they were attempting to tell adults about how cool flower bombs were. Most of them impressed and shocked, purchased the flower bombs without hesitation. This was the first time I saw social entrepreneurship taking place by our very own campers.
    Seeing this phenomena happen right in front of me, reminded me of how there is hope in the world and just by creating our very own local business, you are making the Earth a healthier and more peaceful place for all humans to live in. At Full Cirlces Foundation, young girls learn about how local businesses operate, partner up with a local business of their choice and interest, and let everything else manifest itself hopefully into something beautiful and life changing.

Joanna E. Banegas
Full Cirlces Foundation Strong Camp Instructor