Last April, it was announced that Earth Day’s theme for 2022 is “Invest in Our Planet”. The goal was to motivate society to stop fearing change and embrace all that can be accomplished by acting together. Helping Hen’s Micro-Farm in Rhode Island has done just that, recognizing need in their community, and taking action to do a lot of good within the realm of what they could manage. I caught up with Mike, a Tech Product Leader in Fidelity’s Corporate Technology Group (CTG) and proprietor of Helping Hens Micro-Farm who credits balance for all of what he does.
One of the often-forgotten agile principals is that it has to be sustainable. It’s not really a “sprint”, it’s a series of iterations in a longer marathon.
Whether personally or professionally, we need balance to avoid burnout
Growing up, Mike often spent time gardening, raising animals, working, and camping on his family’s property creating an early love of nature and the natural processes that make the world work. As an adult, when he and his family moved to their “forever home”, they decided to return to his roots and raise a few chickens. The farm started with 6 chickens and was looked at as a hobby Mike could enjoy on the weekends with his wife and children… until the global pandemic proved it could be much more.
The combination of having more time at home and the need in the community for fresh, local food generated a push to expand the family farm to more than 70 chickens and several compost piles. Mike’s technology career and farm life has him pulled in different directions throughout his days, though he finds joy in the constant change of atmosphere. During the week, like many others, Mike’s time is dedicated to long days of meetings, making after hour egg washing and packaging, a time to decompress. On the other hand, after a weekend of hard, manual labor on the farm, sitting behind a desk, interacting with co-workers, and solving technical problems is something he looks forward to. Mike recognizes the amount of work he takes on, but like Earth Day, believes it’s all about perspective and the small footprint his family has made.
Earth Day is a bit like a sprint review at the end of one of my agile team’s sprints. It’s a chance to celebrate the victories, better understand the failures, and plan to improve the future.
This year, Mike, and his family embraced Earth Day as a day of reflection on all that they have accomplished and the opportunity ahead. In 2021, Helping Hens Micro-Farm donated 913 dozen eggs to a local food pantry and diverted about 1,800 5-gallon buckets of food waste from the local landfill. Looking ahead, Mike hopes to continue to expand the farm’s chicken population to increase egg production and begin partnering with organizations that grow food for hunger relief programs and continue to do a lot of good in their community.
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