Hello Everyone!

This weekend has been unbelievable! The weather has been truly memorable and delicious to say the very least! Spring Break is officially over, and Spring has begun! Everyone will be coming back this week, and I will be excited to see everyone!

This past week, we had strawberries, blueberries, leafy greens, and more to help us with Spring “cleaning!” It is time to get our bodies ready and in shape! It’s also time to clean out our “bodies” so that we can get ready for summer lovin’!

I am sure that you have heard of the phrase: “The Love in My Heart.” This weekend after Saturday co-op, my family drove me down to Galveston to celebrate my birthday on the beach. I was so excited to spend time with them in the sunshine! While I was there, I ran more than 15 miles along the shore in the sand! As the sun was shining and as I was breathing in the ocean breeze, I could not help but reflect on all of the blessings in my life. As I was running, all I could think was, “I have SO much love in my heart.” I have love in my heart for my life, my family, my co-op family, my friends, my food, animals, the earth, nature, and anything living. I have so much love that I want to share, and I have so much love to give—as do we all! Why do I have so much love that I want to share? Why is there so much love in my heart? Does anyone else BURST with LOVE like this??!?!

After running 15 miles, I still could have run for another 20 miles. I was not tired at all! I was completely energized and just warmed up!  Around my 8^th mile, I began thinking of WHY I felt so energized. I looked above me, and I thanked the sun for being my power source. Then, I began to think about my fuel source: my food. My heart pumps because I feed it the best organic, local, and raw fruits and vegetables to which we have access. It then hit me! My body is a well-sugared, raw fruit machine! Ah ha!

Fruit is a source of energy! If everything is energy, then energetically, we are all connected.  If one considers the amount of energy that we eat, he or she sees that we consume energetically is the amount that we have to give energetically. The same applies to WHAT we eat. If I am thinking of my food as energy, then my food is more than just fuel. My food is power, my food is cellularly satisfying, and my food is love. If I am feeling love in my heart, then I must be feeding love to my body. Because I eat nothing but raw, organic fruits and veggies, then I know what I am eating is literally FILLED with love. My heart feels fruitful!

My food vibrates with color, and it vibrates with life and energy. When I eat foods that show love to my body, those foods are essentially “loving” foods. It feeds my body so that I CAN love myself and show love to others. Therefore, my food is love. Are these foods not the love that allow my heart to keep beating and to feel emotion? Do they not allow me to feel deeper levels of spirituality than other chemically toxic foods?! Of course! When we fuel ourselves with love, we beam with love! Because I have been living off of strawberries, blueberries, kale, and other succulent fruits and greens from our boxes, my heart is literally fueled on this love. Our hearts look like a giant strawberry anyways! Although that may sound odd, it is true.  Symbolically, you can take this as far as you want—from the soil that your food is grown in to who grows it. Nonetheless, the meaning returns to the main point:

WHAT WE EAT effects HOW we love and HOW MUCH we love because we exude WHAT WE ARE. We ARE what we eat. The love in my heart IS fruit, and the fruit in MY HEART IS FILLED WITH LOVE.  I am sharing this fruitfulness with all of you!

Together, we have fruity hearts! We are making this world more incredible one raw-filled box at a time! The profound effect of cleansing our bodies with invigorating and vibrating fruits and greens changes the essence of our beings and can change everything from our physical statures to our emotional moods. We feel calmer and even more excited, and we are zestful for life! All benefit from this!

We are what we eat. Our organs function from the vitamins and nutrients that we provide to it, as do our emotions. If we eat love, we are love. Energetically, we all effect one another, so why not vibrate high to make everything around you beam!? I have SO much love in my heart for all of you, and I simply want to give back more love to the world. Because my heart runs on fruit, my heart loves. Our love is fruitful. Lettuce share it with the world!

I am excited to see everyone back from Spring Break this week! Let’s break fruit together!

Hugs!

Kristina

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you have had an awesome weekend with this sunshine! I had an incredible birthday weekend that was celebrated on both Thursday and Saturday, and I really appreciate everyone coming to share these days with me! I received the most beautiful plants and flowers! Another great birthday gift was that Saturday had over 106 boxes for the first time! We had tons of volunteers and super-fantastic energy there! Thank you EVERYONE for your help this week in making it perfectly perfect in every way!

I also got to celebrate my birthday on Sunday as I taught my first class at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center! We had a great crowd come out, and we raised over 1000k for the HANC center! Woo hoo! I showed everyone how easy it is to EAT RAW out of our boxes, and I made three easy recipes right out of our co-op boxes to share with the group! Voila! I will be teaching another class next season, so I hope that you can make it then!

As Spring is nearing and most people are literally coming out of their hibernation shell, I get many questions from people about eating raw and getting healthier. Some of my most frequently asked questions are the following:

1) You really eat RAW? ALL RAW? For 6 years?
2) Do you get all of your food from the co-op?
3) How do you eat raw and have a social life?

I can answer these questions SO easily for you because answering these questions is as easy as eating raw. Being raw is about living the lifestyle, and it is a lifestyle change. There is no doubt that you have to want better health, and it is all about the journey along the way. If you want to feel your best, which most do, then why not try?

Yes, I in July, I will have eaten a 100% raw foods diet for six years! Many of you who already know that I rid myself of hyperglycemia (pre-diabetic) by solely eating raw, but for my newbies, I share my entire story on the ROC website in the “About Kristina” page. I had the fantastic help of John Rose and Dr. Douglas Graham to train me, and it was this journey of being raw that led me to start our beloved co-op over three years ago!

I absolutely get ALL of my food from the co-op. My saying goes that, “If it is not in the box, then it is not in my belly!” I save hundreds of dollars on a weekly basis and thousands of dollars on a yearly basis buying massive amounts of produce for both myself and my family. Just because I run this co-op does not mean that I do not buy my own food. I am this co-op’s number one supporter!

It’s simple: when you buy in bulk, you save money, and you get the best quality produce at the same time! What is not to lose??? Of course, there will always be items that you may crave that are not in season that you can find at the store, but I still hold myself to eat whatever is in season or whatever comes in the box. I love the challenge of being creative with the foods that we have! This is how I find new foods to love!  I know that when we eat the fruits and vegetables that are in season, we gain and absorb more from them nutritionally as well. In addition, I believe that something happens energetically when we eat in accordance with the laws of nature. When we eat raw and in season, I believe that we are tied more to the earth and grounded emotionally as well. When we feel our best, we perform at our best. I want to be at my best as much as I can as I am sure that you do too!

Finally, I would definitely say that my social life is WAY different than it used to be—and it is a MILLION times BETTER! Before I went raw, everything I did was streamlined into society via being social. Sadly, our society is way too centered around eating food. Yes, it can be fun to eat with friends, but not if it becomes a means to demean your body. We feel better when we meet our needs for proper nutrition as well as for fun socialization. If I spend time with people, I make an effort to be present with them in an activity that we both enjoy doing. This has caused me to branch out more in regards to fun activities, and I LOVE IT! If I ever have to go to a restaurant, I eat before or bring my own food for the chef to prepare. I do this for several reasons as opposed to ordering a non-organic salad in the restaurant. My primary reason is that the food we get at co-op is ten times BETTER than anything in the restaurants! Invite people over for dinner and make good food together. When I am with people, it is because I want to spend time with them. Make socialization about quality time, and be brave enough to meet your food needs at the same time. There is always a solution. Just because a crowd does it, doesn’t mean you have to as well. You feel much better when you not only eat sane, but also when you follow your heart!

I know that we have one more week left until Spring arrives, but it feels like it is already here! I am excited to share this coming week with you all! We will have abundance and sunshine! We need more volunteers to sort the boxes, and helping hands make for much more fun time! Technically, I am still celebrating my birthday, so the party continues! Woo hoo!

Hugs and love!

Kristina

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you have had a peaceful and warming weekend as we enjoyed some truly great weather! It was the type of sunshine that hit your skin and immediately put you into a trance.

Because Friday is my birthday and because this week will be so special to me, I want to talk about the people who mean the MOST to me–all of our co-operators and volunteers! Over the past three years, all of you have become my family. We share food through rain, shine, or freeze. We share recipes. We share random stories about ladybugs, leafy greens, runs, yoga, children, friends, food concoctions, remedies, and more. What we have created is truly a co-operative effort, and I LOVE it!

If you have ever gotten one of our co-op boxes or come to co-op, then I consider you a co-operator. If you have come to help us sort, then I also consider you a volunteer. We are all ages, colors, sizes, heights, toes, and more. If you are even reading this email, then you are interested in communities and optimal-quality food. You appreciate interacting with your food because food is a passion to you. You understand that when you interact with your food, something special happens. You show love to your body, and this love shines to all who surround you. Our bond with food is a relationship with our bodies. You show love to your body, and this love shines to all who surround you. The significance and impact on the world is more than we can possibly comprehend. We know the food that will enter into our bodies, and the experience of eating becomes personal–truly personal. What can possibly be more personal than getting to know the source of what fuels you? We are what we eat, and if we know what enters in our bodies, then we essentially know that from what we are created. I am currently a walking strawberry from Gundermann Acres.

When individuals come to volunteer, they come for several reasons. We come to help sort the food, see the food, participate in community, enjoy the outdoors, and share the time with other like-minded individuals. It’s peaceful, it’s fun, and it’s different in the best of ways! It’s a completely different experience than sitting in a restaurant with strangers ordering a dish about which you know diddily-squat.  Almost a year ago, I wrote about “The Heart of a Volunteer,” and I shared how I find it truly mind-blowing that strangers with similar passions can come together to co-operate as a team to get a goal accomplished. If that team is successful enough, they stick together to evolve and to accomplish many incredible things over a period of time. If this team truly sticks together long enough, they become a family. WE have all become a family, and look at how many new family members that we have!

After 3.5 years of sharing this co-op with all of you, I find that all who have helped to build this co-op are still chief participants, and they actively participate on the scene and off the scene weekly.  I cannot live a few weeks without them!  I also look around and see that very, very few that have left, and I see thousands that have jumped in and joined with open hearts. WOW! All who want to come and volunteer are welcomed with open arms, interest, and hugs. I hope that eventually one day I will get to meet and share time with all of you in this way. I make myself present at co-op so that I can share this time volunteering with others because it means so much to me.

Our volunteers are troopers! Each week is different for volunteering. Last week we had clouds, last Saturday we had windy rain, last month we had frost, and this week we will have sunshine.  This summer we will have heat! Each day is different, but it doesn’t matter because those who come to help show true dedication and love for volunteering. So many of life’s lessons are learned from sorting. Analogies take place all the time about parallels that exist between participating at co-op and between challenges that exist in the “real” world. We learn to solution-solve and to do this with others who want to help. This past Saturday, it was too windy to put up the tents, so we moved our entire operation underground in less than 20 minutes with the help of 20 volunteers! How cool is that?! Everyone had a smile on their face and jumped right in to get the job done. I believe there was even some dancing to the music at the same time!

When I first started this co-op and started getting more and more volunteers, I was floored with humility. I could NOT believe that others would have the same passion as I do for volunteering. It is RARE in this world to find others who want to contribute their time to a worthy cause for no dollar value. What I receive co-op is so much more than I possibly can give, and for this reason, I do not assign myself a paycheck. I receive community, food, and love–for what more can I possibly ask? Why would I need a paycheck for that? Yes, I do tons of behind the scenes work to organize the days, food, farmers, emails, payments, drops, etc., but I do it because I LOVE to do it. If I did it for money, then I would merely be a service, and the meaning behind “co-operating” would hold a different meaning in my heart. I want to live as an example for the world that we can still have our passions in life to share with others and simultaneously enjoy. People NEED something that they can delve their hearts into that is not money-oriented: We WANT something that is love-seeking. People want to see good happen in the world, and our co-op is a shining example of success from good hearts. We are not a service or a sale, but we are a co-operative. We are real people who want real community with real food. This exists because of all of the love that is put into growing our organic produce, the love that is placed into our boxes by our volunteers, and the self-seeking love that takes place when you pick-up your share.

We have 2600 co-operators in our community, and if you have ever come to pick up your box, then I most likely know your name. If you look below, I have shined light on our three new co-operators of the month of March! They have dedicated themselves each week to helping put love in your boxes, and I hope that everyone enjoys getting to know them and give them a hug when you see them! I desire for our co-op to be personal, and I want for everyone in Houston, Texas, and the world to participate in one form or fashion. Why not share this blessing of abundance with others and create more community?  I wish for everyone to participate and to volunteer so that they can feel what co-op truly encompasses. We are all merely participants in life. When we volunteer, we decide that we flow with life. We choose to be a part of something greater, and we do it with a giving heart. When we give anything with a wholesome purity, goodness grows all around us.

I hope that you all enjoyed this letter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Of course I could go on forever, but I will wait until next week! I hope that I get to see ALL of you this coming week, especially to celebrate my birthday. I am SO blessed to have you all in my life!

Showering Hugs,

Kristina

P.S. If you bring me a gift, plants or other items only please…no chocolate or prepared cooked foods! (I don’t eat them!)