all potatoes are good potatoes
For a few years when I was young, my mom was a resident director on campus at Middle Tennessee State University. Often, between her classes and her additional responsibilities, other college students – usually resident advisors – would help. James would pick me up from school sometimes. TJ and Kelly would babysit me until my mom came home. Rachel and Noah would play out in the green courtyard with me. They would help out however was needed – they just wanted to take care of me and my mom.
Community is helping out. Period.
Needless to say, community was something I was kind of born into. I have a complicated family structure, and everyone was “mom” at some point – aunt, uncle, grandparents included. It was just everyone doing what they could as they could, whether that was financially or with their time.
At humble onion, we’re interested in bolstering communities.
Sometimes this can look like investing back into our local physical economy. Sometimes it’s listening to, and participating in, the online design discourse. Sometimes it’s becoming a mentor. Sometimes it’s investing.
Building community can look like just about anything, but it’s ultimately about bettering the world we live in. When I look back, I realize that if my mom hadn’t had help with me, I’d just be left alone to my own devices a lot. I wouldn’t have had a very joyful childhood, and it would have been pretty lonely. Those who helped my mom and I might see it as small potatoes, but to us, they were big potatoes.
When I was in my undergraduate program at the University of North Alabama, I was a member of the Honors Program (now the Honors College). As part of our curriculum, we were required to volunteer within the community. I worked for a couple of organizations, and cannot begin to express how valuable that time was. Being able to work together to do things that really, truly matter outside of our day-to-day jobs is powerful.
So what do we do to help the community?
I always offer a 20% discount to nonprofits, and humble onion is a proud member of Shoals Nonprofit Center. We’re constantly looking for opportunities to help out while balancing the fact that we do, unfortunately, have bills to pay. As humble onion grows, I sincerely hope to build in community service more consistently and more broadly.
But for now, we’re going to offer support, advice, and design services to make our community reach their goals.
What does community mean to you?
