building community series

What is Community? The Importance of a Local & Diverse Community

Happy November, Explorer families! In a few short weeks, 2022 will come to a close. I know all of us, here, at Greenville Explorers have so much to be grateful for as we begin to reflect over the last year and look forward to the new adventures of 2023. One big goal I had over the last year was to begin to increase our visibility amongst the local community of businesses and families here in Greenville. I say "begin" because you don't automatically become visible to everyone in a day! Visibility is a constant goal - visibility among your target audience (families with kids); visibility among those that are your contemporaries (museums, schools, etc); visibility among the local commerce market (downtown & upstate businesses). I wanted to start a blog series that focuses on these partnerships and collaborations in an effort to showcase how beautiful our local community is in its care of children, local business, and common goals. Consistency isn't my strongest attribute, but we're going to explore this aspect of local, diverse community together!

So! What is community? Merriam-Webster has several points to define what a "community" is. My favorite: "an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (such as species) in a common location." I will do a little splice and dice and create one that best describes our community, in my opinion, of course: "An interacting population of various groups of individuals in a common location working together for their society despite differences." Greenville has a thriving focus on local business while also marketing that focus to a national level. But how can we do even better? What if we started championing the beautiful landscape of our diversity? Local community doesn't LOOK the same. A strong, local community is colorful, diverse in its people and its categories of businesses. Let's start there! Let's start this series by focusing on our diverse community and the partnerships we, at Greenville Explorers, continue to make - for the children.

FIRST UP!

Locally sourced, farmed produce is not a new concept. But the act of transforming the relationship of farmer and harvest to consumer and local community is. Instead of going through the middle man of big production farms and large corporate stores, the local farmer is now the featured story in the world of community building. "Farm to table" is the new "it" phrase in dining. "Locally sourced" is the "it" term in consumer buying. And Greenville now has so many local farmers that provide their locally sourced and grown products! One such place to find a community hub of locally farmed produce in it's grocery form as well as cooked, ready-to-eat, is the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery. Their vision is a community that celebrates and supports a just and sustainable food system that allows small local farmers to thrive. And their mission seeks to buy, sell and cook with fresh, local food to support a sustainable food system and provide a community space where people come together to celebrate meals. How cool is that?! And we are so proud to call them partner! AND, Explorer families, you have an opportunity to support them, our local farmers, AND have delicious produce each week through our partnership!

We are so GRATEFUL! As part of our new, blooming partnership with Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery, we are excited to provide easy access, affordable produce to our Greenville Explorer families. For the holidays, Greenville Explorers is partnering with the SRC&G for families to purchase a locally sourced produce box. All you need to do is follow the link provided to the purchase page and follow these instructions!

Order your box
Select "Friday" of the week you wish to pick up your box
In "first name" put GREENVILLE EXPLORERS
in "last name" put YOUR family last name
check out

We will coordinate with Swamp Rabbit and have your produce box ready for pick up on each Friday afternoon at our Explorers Academy Preschool building at 638 East Washington St, Greenville, SC 29601!

Easy peasy!

Click on the picture to go directly to the produce box purchase page!

Dear, Explorer families, take some time this holiday season to make a small effort to shop locally! Support your small businesses that are the backbone of your community. Shop diverse businesses! Shop diverse owners and types of businesses! And as always, Keep Exploring, because it takes a village. And you've found one with us.