Sara Melissa Rundle's Page

Kava Ceremony

The indigenous Tongan people of the South Pacific have a very special ritual called the faikava. This ritual is used mostly for courtship but also as a social gathering. If a Tongan man is looking for a woman who is unmarried and has finished school, he will request to have a faikava ceremony for him and his friends. She may not be a cousin or relative of anyone at the ceremony. A designated person will mash up the kava plant with stones and put the powder into a sack. The… Continue

It is March 10,2020. I am 32, and eating dinner with my family. We are having fresh vegetables that we grew in our garden in the front yard. My children have invited their friends over for dinner since they were there to help plant and grow the vegetables too. We eat salad with organic lettuce from a local grower in Sonoma County. We have grown cherry tomatoes in our garden and sliced them up to put in the salad. The tomatoes are red and juicy and taste delicious. My children's friends never… Continue

I know a lot of people around where I live with plenty of space for gardens. There is also a lot of room around a trail that goes for miles through Contra Costa County, called the Iron Horse Trail. I could plant some fruit trees, such as an orange tree. When I was younger we had one in our backyard and it was fun for me to eat the fruit that I picked off a tree that I planted. I also would like to find a way to educate children and their parents on ways in which they can grow their own food,… Continue

When we hear about poverty, hunger, and food insecurity, we might not necessarily think about it being a problem in the United States. However, there are many people who go hungry right here in this country. In 2008, a survey found that 14.6 percent of households in the U.S. had low food security. Many of the states that are considered below food security are in the southern part of the country, including Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Oklahoma.

In Contra Costa County, which is where I… Continue