Meet a Volunteer - Anna Kiss!

 As part of a regular column, we're conducting short interviews with our volunteers to help shareholders get to know the faces behind the table who make Coventry City Fresh work by donating their time and energy (and often some cash) to a cause they believe in.

Tell us a bit about yourself.  

Eggplant Moustache

My name is Anna Kiss. Kiss is my middle name, technically. I was named after the song "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, I've lived in Cleveland Heights for 9 years with my husband and sons, aged 10 & 8. I'm a big dabbler and do a little bit of everything. I like to garden, knit, make art, write, and not get killed by freak accidents. My favorite community-building activity is drinking wine on area front porches during the summer. 

What do you do with City Fresh?

What don't I do with City Fresh? I have managed the Coventry stop for three years. It involves creating literature, gathering orders, scheduling volunteers, keeping up a really good relationship with the library staff who let us use their space, meeting with other City Fresh managers, setting up, running, & taking down the stop, storing our stuff during the winter, painting signs, working with spreadsheets, marketing our stop, composting the scraps, placing the orders, and keeping all of it straight.

Just this season, I've started doing a minor paid-gig for City Fresh in addition to managing the stop. I do whatever Nick (the director of City Fresh & The New Agrarian Center) tells me to. Mostly that's driving around gathering cash-outs from the other east side fresh stops.

I also take lots of photos of myself with vegetables.

Daikon unicorn

How long have you been a volunteer?

I think I've been volunteering for five years. I can't remember though. The years have gotten really fuzzy with small children. I think 2008 was the first year at Coventry Park. I loved the community vibe of the fresh stop, where the moms would hang out and chat while our kids climbed the mulberry tree or played on the playground. After awhile, I started restocking the tables while I waited for my boys to finish wearing themselves out. That turned into helping sign people in, which in turn the next year resulted in helping to co-manage the stop with Tracie when the previous manager, Lotte, moved away. When Tracie moved on, I took over the reigns entirely.  

Were you a shareholder before that? How long?

I was a shareholder at the original Cleveland Heights stop on Noble Road. I had heard about City Fresh the year before from the Cleveland-area "crunchy" moms online, but didn't want to make the trek to Lakewood every week. I was very excited when they added so many new stops the next year (2007).  

What keeps you coming back year after year?

Turnips the size of your head

I love City Fresh for so many reasons. First, local, sustainably grown food is so important to changing the dominant paradigm. Investing in our food heritage is good for our bodies, good for our communities, and good for the planet. Secondly, City Fresh's unique social justice mission is bar-none. Bringing local foods to limited-income food deserts makes this a stand-alone Community Supported Agriculture group. It's not just getting extremely affordable great food. It's extremely ethical affordable great food. We run trucks on used vegetable oil and are powered by a huge group of dedicated volunteers! What could be better?

Lastly, it's about community. I adore our core group. I have been lucky to grow really close to most of them. We share meals and special occasions together now. Last year, I officiated the wedding of two of our volunteers and attended the birth (as a doula) of another couple of volunteers. In addition, there are the shareholders. We've watched shareholder's children grow, we crack jokes with them when they check in, and they are so so patient with me when I'm frustrated or making mean faces! Building community in my area was how I got started with City Fresh, and it's the number one thing I'll miss if I leave. 

What’s your day job?

Like I said, I'm a dabbler. I work for City Fresh, clean houses, moonlight as a doula, unschool my children, make art, knit trees, and take a photo every day.  

What’s your favorite vegetable?

Romanesque. It's like broccoli and looks like a fractal. It's amazing. Prepared as an Indian cauliflower dish - as my husband made it the one time we had it in our shares - tastes divine. I hate cauliflower. Love love love romanesco broccoli. 

Got a recipe to share?

In mid-late July, my fridge gets a little overwhelmed. To get through all the eggplant, tomatoes, herbs, and peppers, I chop a little bit each day and add them to eggs with cheese to make a breakfast burrito. I wrap it all up in a tortilla (homemade or Whole Foods' organic homestyle variety) and eat for brunch with a cup of coffee.

My boys when they were wee.

Also, if we get okra, my Favorite Dish in the History of the World is Sookhi Bhindi from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.