Meet Eliza

1.   What is your secret identity outside of Elmo's?

When I’m not enjoying my time at Elmo’s, I spend my time running a non profit called “Sol Food Mobile Farm” with three of my best friends from Durham: Ellen Duda, Dylan Hammond and Reid Rosemond. Our organization was founded in October 2011 and is partnered with a food advocacy group in the Durham area called Zomppa. The work of Sol Food is focused on environmental education for children and young adults with a strong emphasis on sustainability and urban gardening.

One program we run is a national teaching tour on a school bus. Our goal with this project is to travel around the country for six months as a staff and offer free sustainability workshops and expositions (“expos”) to communities across the United States. These workshops and expos will be focused on our five Program Directives: gardening, composting, nutrition, alternative fuels and outdoor living. We will provide these opportunities in over twenty different states to schools, community centers, neighbor associations, festivals, YMCA’s and other local gatherings.

In preparation for this national teaching tour we realized that we needed a large vehicle to double as both a mobile home and a mobile classroom/greenhouse. Therefore this past fall, with the help of Zomppa, we bought a 1996 International Blue Bird school bus from Dartmouth College. Formerly known as the Big Green Bus, this vehicle was a perfect fit for our road trip program! Over the last six months we have gutted the bus and have been retro fitting it to run on waste vegetable oil. We have also been equipping it with a a variety of sustainable systems; including a living green roof, composting stations, waste water collection tanks, a wood burning stove, solar panels and a mobile greenhouse! We have worked around the clock on developing our curriculum, fundraising, networking and getting involved around the Triangle. We will be working with Durham School of the Arts (our alma mater) and Science and Math students this spring, as well as holding workshops at Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival and the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, NC.

2. How did you get interested in owning your own bus?

Owning my own school bus has been a dream of mine since the eighth or ninth grade. In fact Dylan, Ellen and Reid tried to buy a school bus with me in 2007 when we graduated from high school. I vividly remember spending long days in class doodling pictures of buses on my school notebooks and scheming about driving across the country. I also remember as a kid having an obsession with tree-houses and go-carts (especially the cool ones from Stone Brothers and Bryd)! Now as an adult, I realize that I haven’t outgrown those dreams too much...to me our Sol Food bus is like a functional treehouse on wheels!

The purchase of the Sol Food bus in 2011 was a dream come true! Not only do the four of us have a unique vehicle to care for but we also have an environmentally friendly mode of transportation in which to reach a large number of communities in need of fresh food and urban, green space. With the ability take our workshops to other cities we have a huge opportunity to learn and grown in countless different environments.

3. What do you ideally hope to accomplish on your bus tour?

Our workshop goal for the bus trip is to build 10 community gardens around the country; each complete with a rain water collection system, a fully stocked tool shed and a vermacompost station. Our expo goals include reaching 30-50 sites to provide educational tours of our bus and share information on our organization. At the end of the day, our basic philosophy will always be the same. As an organization we believe that a well-rounded education includes hands-on experience, and that time spent digging, planting and harvesting vegetables alongside peers will help connect children with their community and the origins of their food. If we can foster that sense of connection and stewardship at each of our site visits then we will count those experiences as a success!

4.  What are the biggest obstacles involved?

I would say that our biggest obstacle has been learning how to run a grassroots organization, not just as co-workers but as a group of childhood friends. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to see the four of us align both our professional and our personal goals into one unified mission and program. I have really cherished this past year with all of our “crew members” and am really looking forward to our trip! Everyone keeps saying that we will hate each other after living on a bus for six months together but I really don’t think that’s possible. I love my three “co-workers” more than I can describe, no matter what the obstacles may be.

5. Can you share one of the adventures that has already happened to you while traveling in the bus?

One of the most exciting adventures we have had so far was the trip we took down from Dartmouth College to Durham back in October. The bus, at that point, had not been driven in over three years and had been left to rot in an abandoned parking lot in Lebanon, New Hampshire. When we traveled to New Hampshire to purchase the vehicle we only brought a limited amount of tools and even less money! Somehow we managed to breath life back into the bus, despite its many ailments at the time and limp it down to North Carolina.

Our trip south was originally only supposed to take two days but that was before we had seven major mechanical breakdowns! Our trip ended up taking seven days total. By the end of the week we had replaced three batteries, one fuel pump, three fuel filters, one water pump and a forty five pound starter. We had to sleep in parking lots, hitchhike to auto part stores and work day and night to get our bus back to good health. Our bus even caught on fire one night as we were driving down highway 95 outside of Boston. Thankfully we all made it back home safely and have nursed the bus back into working condition. It was the adventure of a life time!

6.  Does the bus have a name? How about a personality?

The bus has been named “Eno” after our beautiful Eno river in Durham. We all grew up stomping around that state park and have a deep love and connection to that ecosystem. It has given all four of us a passion for the outdoors and for protecting our natural resources. As far as the bus’ personality...well, you’ll just have to meet it to experience it yourself! All I can say is Eno has seen a lot of adventure already and is quite a trooper!

7. How can people get involved in your bus tour? (contact information)

The best way to get in touch with Sol Food Mobile Farm is to email us. We check our email daily and would love any feedback or interest from the community on our bus project. Our address is: SolFoodMobileFarm@gmail.com.

For information on Sol Food you can visit our website at: SolFoodMobileFarm.org.

8.  Is there anything else you would like us to know?

This spring we are having a major fundraising campaign to help get us on the road by June 2012. There are 3 ways you can help us!

1.   You can attend one of community events this spring! Please see our website for upcoming events in your area. All ages are welcome to attend and we love sharing the bus with our Durham neighbors!

1.   You can make a monetary donation on our website, which is tax-deductible and much appreciated!<

1.   You can make a material donation to our program by donating old lumber, soil, mulch or seeds that you might have. We are also accepting donations for the retro-fit of our vehicle such as plywood, plexi-glass, mechanical tools and other fun stuff. You can visit our website for a complete materials list!

Any and all support is appreciate! As we say at Sol Food Mobile Farm, with your help we can really “get growing!"