THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEIR HAND UP

The family the district chose

The district had a dairy that needed a family, and the way a family was chosen was an open call.

The dairy was the one a farmer was stepping back from, on the far side of the district. The couple waited outside the room while the call was on, and the door between them and the questions was shut.

Other families had come as well, because the call was open to any family who wanted the work on this dairy. Inside the room for the call were the doctor, the retired farmer and the hardware store owner.

The farmer who stood with them asked the questions, and the couple were not the ones who chose. The farmer who stood with them asked every family the same way, and the couple got that same hearing.

Each family was asked where they wanted to be in five years, and what they brought to this farm. The couple took the same questions as the other families, and they gave their answers, and then they waited.

The same questions were used for a family the room knew well and for a family it had only just met. Each family got the questions in full before the room moved on to the next.

The couple answered as one family among the families, and then they waited with the others for news. Wanting it most was why the couple started, and it was not why this room picked a family.

The room was not looking for the slickest farmer on paper, and it was looking for the best people for this farm.

They rang people each family had milked beside, and they asked what that family was like on a bad morning in the pit. They asked whether those people would put that family on their own cows.

The choice was on merit, from the questions and from what people said when they were asked. What a family brought was said in that family's own words, and the room heard each one on merit.

The questions stayed on the person and on the five years, and the room had time to hear both. The work they were being considered for was share farming, on a community owned farm the district had already started.

The room kept to those questions for every family, from the first one through to the last. The couple stayed outside while the choice was made, so winning the call and running the call stayed apart.

The afternoon ran on the way a selection ran, one family at a time, with the same questions each time. The couple could see other families waiting their turn, and they took their place in that line.

The room came to its choice, and nobody outside was told until someone came to the door.

Someone came out and told them it was them.

The families who were not chosen were told as well, and they were given that feedback in writing. That writing was so they kept going for the next farm when another one needed a family.

The couple came to this call as farm workers, and they left it as the family the district chose. The district had its family for the dairy, chosen in the open call, and the couple heard it from the person who came out to them.

This is an illustration of how it could unfold when it goes right. The district and the people in it aren't any one place or person.

Community Owned Farms is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.