“When I was younger, I always thought everyone was exactly like me and lived in a house and had a great life,” Julia, 12, told Our Town Reno during a recent interview at her cozy home with her joyful golden retriever Rosebud on her lap.
Growing up Julia was of the idea that every individual on this earth is happy and has everything they want. Her thoughts changed when she was in the back seat of her mom’s car in Reno recently, traveling to some place for work.
“We stopped at the stoplight and I saw someone with a sign and they were asking for money and I felt bad for them,” Julia remembers.
Julia’s eyes had welled up, her mom recalls. She immediately asked her to help the person with some money.
After returning home, Julia asked her parents if she could make some food and help people in need. Her parents instantly agreed.
“I had seen someone, like an employee of McDonald’s, give food to someone who didn’t have any food and I wanted to do it,” said Julia.
That very same week, with the help of her mom, Julia made around 13 bowls of vegetarian black bean chili and packed equal amounts of chips and cheese to go with it. She and her father went and dropped the food at The Hampton House Garden Project at 638 Elko St in Reno.
She has continued to help since, recently dropping off yogurt drinks and lunch packs.
Lily Baran in center of above photo has mentored others while developing the Hampton House community garden. File photo by Rachel Jackson.
The community initiative is run by Reno activist Lily Baran (above, center), who also happens to be a friend to Julia’s mom. Baran grows fresh fruits and vegetables and pollinates flowers to help the Nevada community through donations and collective gardening. The group runs an outdoor fridge, where anonymous volunteers can deposit food and people can serve themselves. Dry goods, clothing and Narcan are available for pickup as well.
“Julia is an example of springing into action when you see a hole in the fabric of your community,” Baran said. “To regularly practice community care is not only a needed element, it is a wonderful feeling.”
“We look forward to more gardens to establish healing areas with sustainable food sovereignty and expand to housing efforts for marginalized communities,” Baran said of her own ongoing efforts.
Julia who is attending a local middle school loves to cook. She often makes pies for bake sales at school or bakes brownies for her school field trips.
“When I was younger and experimental, I made this thing called Julia dough, it was basically flour, water and lots of sugar,” says Julia.
Julia also loves reading, playing with her Legos and gardening. This year her garden was in full bloom with string beans, kale, baby tomatoes and peppers. Next year, she plans to grow more vegetables like carrots so that she is able to use those to cook fresh meals for helping more people in the community.
Julia dreams of becoming a scientist, perhaps an astronomer or an astrophysicist she says, when she grows up. She dreams of inventing a teleporter so that navigation becomes easier. She also wants to befriend an alien if they are out there so that she can learn their language and communicate with them.
Amidst all that, though, Julia wants to keep making food every other week so that she is able to help people in her community.
“Everyone should be happy, the world should be happy and everyone should be equal. I really like Lily, she’s really nice and I look forward to meeting her always,” Julia says of Baran who has agreed to be one of her mentors on her journey in helping others.
Baran feels honored. “It’s important that we all have intergenerational mentors and mentees. I can learn as much if not more from her than she can from me, I’m sure. I’m honored she asked me.”