Community Spotlight: Brenda Hawkins Pagan

Brenda Hawkins Pagan smiles with a cookie at a bake sale for FFB. (Photo credit: Chloe Aiello)

WELCOME TO MAPLE STREET COMMUNITY GARDEN’S COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT!

This series celebrates all the incredible people who help make the garden a success, and shares some of their stories with you.

Meet Brenda Hawkins Pagan (she/her), a regular volunteer with Fresh Food Box and the Gardening Committee!

Hawkins Pagan joined Maple Street Community Garden in August 2020. From the moment she stepped into the garden, it immediately felt like home.

“When I first arrived at MSCG and stood in the midst of the beds it took me back to memories of my childhood in my grandparents backyard in Crown Heights. I could feel their love as memories flooded my heart. I learned so much being in the garden with them. I was hooked from that moment on,” she wrote.

Since then, Hawkins Pagan has enjoyed the opportunities the garden provides to connect through food with fellow community members from beautiful and varied backgrounds. One event she particularly enjoyed was the Gardening Committee’s Open Harvest Day and Cooking Demonstration with Nafisa.

“It was an amazing event that highlighted the garden produce and diversity of members,” she wrote.

Because for Hawkins Pagan, it’s fellow volunteers who have truly enriched her life.

“LEARNING and engaging with other people from the community are two of the best benefits of volunteering on the Gardening Committee and Fresh Food Box.  I’ve met so many ’foodies’, lifelong learners and great people I probably would not have had opportunities to work and chat with,” Hawkins pagan wrote.