Wellness Wednesday At The Common|Wealth

Written By kate mytty

Wellness Wednesdays emerged in Summer 2021 when the Sweet Water Foundation team and community members began sharing culinary traditions featuring the bountiful produce from SWF’s Community Farm every Wednesday during lunch. Since then, the practice has evolved into a collective weekly ritual during which we cultivate the land, engage in Civic Arts, and share a farm-to-table meal. This year, SWF hosted 20 Wellness Wednesdays, welcoming a broad audience of neighbors, visitors, Neighborhood Academy members, and people engaged in Sweet Water Communiversity. Each week’s gathering reflected the feedback and harvests of the land, celebrating the season from spring through fall.

Wellness Wednesday in action across seasons on The Community Farm | Photos by Sweet Water Foundation

Origins of Wellness Wednesdays

In Summer 2021, Sweet Water Foundation began a weekly ritual of preparing and sharing a meal that reflected the abundance of harvest from the Community Farm. What started with a simple act of team members preparing meals for one another has since evolved into a collective practice of wellness that is more than just a culinary ritual. 

Wellness Wednesdays have evolved into an annual routine reflecting the changes of the seasons, the land, The Common|Wealth, and the SWF community. Each week, from late spring through the end of August, SWF welcomes an intergenerational audience of neighbors, visitors, and Communiversity participants to The Common|Wealth. They come to cultivate the land, engage in Civic Arts, share a farm-to-table meal, and reconnect with one another. The highlight of each Wellness Wednesday is a farm-to-table meal thoughtfully prepared by team members, Communiversity participants, elders, and community members, reflecting their cultures, favorite recipes, and the produce of the season, all while keeping nutrition top of mind. 

Wellness Wednesday meals reflect SWF’s practice of eating with the seasons, featuring everything from warm stews with spring herbs and greens to the abundant collard greens, cabbage, and cucumbers of summer, and the peppers, tomatoes, and squash of late summer. Wellness Wednesdays serve up more than food; they are an opportunity to nourish the land, minds, and bodies, and [re]connect people with one another.

Wellness Wednesday Meal Preparation | Photos by Sweet Water Foundation

2025 Wellness Wednesdays | A Season of Abundance

This year, SWF welcomed visitors of all ages for more than 20 weeks to work together on the Community Farm and across The Common|Wealth. Activities shifted throughout the year as new tasks took priority, reflecting the seasonal changes. Most tasks revolved around the theme of regeneration, including preparing the Community Farm by spreading soil and woodchips and planting seeds in the spring, weeding, pruning, and harvesting in the summer, and preparing the land for the fall at the end of the season.  

Examples of Wellness Wednesday Activities Ranging from Spreading Woodchips and Soil, Composting, and Circling up for Introductions and Connection Points | Photos by SWF

Given that access to fresh food is limited to the produce section of grocery stores, most people are disconnected from the land. They are thus unfamiliar with the full life cycle of plants,  their regenerative nature, and how they change with the seasons. People who regularly attend Wellness Wednesday witness the regeneration of the Community Farm firsthand. This summer, they observed and participated in the entire lifecycle of pepper plants, from seeding and transplanting to flowering, fruiting, harvesting, and seed collection. This weekly experience reframes people’s understanding of where food comes from, how each plant naturally regenerates from one lifecycle to the next, and the inherent absurdity in the conventional economics behind farming and food.   

Bountiful Harvest from the Community Farm | Photos by SWF

Weekly Culinary Creations

After cultivating the land, SWF invites Wellness Wednesday attendees to share a farm-to-table meal together under the shade of the Learning Tree in the alleyway next to the Think-Do House. Each week, the SWF team, Neighborhood Academy, and Summer fellows and apprentices prepare meals that celebrate the produce in abundance that week. In the spring, meals highlighted the abundance of greens, such as collards, mustard, and arugula, alongside beans saved from the previous year. During the summer, meals featured cucumbers and summer squash. By the end of the 20 weeks, basil generated through propagation and tomatoes became the main course.

A meal that would typically cost over $30 per plate at a restaurant or $20 if prepared at home is enjoyed for free while visitors share stories and reconnect with one another. Each week, the meal was accompanied by a recipe card that included ingredients, steps to make each meal, and a list of produce from the Community Farm. Meals featured during the 2025 Wellness Wednesday Season included:

  • Arugula Pesto with White Beans & Pasta 

  • Black Beans + Rice with Sauteed Greens + Cilantro Dressing

  • Buttery Garlic Noodles

  • Calabacitas with Rice + Refried Beans

  • Chipotle Chickpea Rice Bowls with Mixed Greens

  • Creamy Basil Pesto with Grilled Vegetables

  • Curried Lentils w/Greens and Tarragon 

  • Gumbo Z’herbes Kale and Chard Salad with Herb Vinaigrette with Mustard Pesto Pasta

  • Italian-style Pasta with White Beans, and Kale, 

  • Japchae with Tofu and Zucchini Bread

  • Pâte en Serre 

  • Quinoa Tabbouleh with Panko-Crusted Tofu

  • Red Beans + Pinto Beans with Tomato Rice 

  • Roasted Chickpeas with Basil Chimichurri 

  • Roasted Summer Squash, Vegan Sausage, Hummus, Tzatziki, and Cucumber Salad

  • Sautéed Cabbage with Red Beans + Rice

  • Savory Mixed Beans, Tomato Rice, Sauteed Greens, + Cilantro Dressing

  • Southern Rice & Beans with Greens & Vegan Meatballs 

  • Vegan Zuppa Toscana

Examples of Wellness Wednesday Meals Prepared during the 2025 Season | Photos by Sweet Water Foundation

Civic Arts Wednesday

For 10 weeks during the summer, Wellness Wednesday meals were followed by Civic Arts activities across The Common|Wealth and workshops in Civic Arts Church. Activities and workshops included making smudge sticks with mugwort, painting and natural dye with mulberries, exploring regenerative mathematics through basil propagation, a four-part printmaking series, and an introduction to weaving. The workshops featured “wild” plants (plants found in abundance at The Common|Wealth that are often considered weeds or nuisances), activities that transform wastes-to-resources (like printmaking with cardboard), and a celebration of the exponentially regenerative nature of plants like basil through propagation. Regenerative Educational tools, such as instructional sheets and plant cue cards, were created for and shared during each workshop to deepen people’s understanding of the artistic methods and techniques shared and to reconnect people with the wild plants all around them.

2025 Civic Arts Wednesdays Activities | Celebrating Wild Plants through Civic Arts | Photos by Sweet Water Foundation

kate mytty
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