August's Good Neighbor Skill

August's Good Neighbor Skill: Share the Harvest

Good Neighbor Skill 6: Share the Harvest:

We're back with our sixth installment of Good Neighbor Skills, a SERVE Village series highlighting practical ways neighbors can support one another! As August rolls in, gardens across Hamilton County are bursting with tomatoes, zucchini, and sweet corn, and families are gearing up for a new school year. SERVE Village has chosen Sharing the Harvest as our core skill for the month, a simple reminder that abundance is more fun, and more useful, when it's shared.

Every neighborhood already holds a surplus of something. Maybe it's an overflowing

garden bed, an extra box of school supplies, a truck that can haul a couch, or just a free evening to watch someone's kids for an hour. Sharing the Harvest is about noticing what's already growing around you, literally and otherwise, and passing a little of it along.

This spirit is what drives our mission to connect neighbors where they are with what they have - be it a skill, time, or something material. Neighbors recognizing what they have and putting it to good use for someone nearby lays the foundation for a strong community fabric of belonging, trust, and connection. This season, we invite you to bring that same spirit to your own porch, driveway, and block.

Take a Moment to Notice What You Have to Give:

• Look at what's overflowing in your own life right now. Is it garden vegetables? Hand-me-down backpacks and supplies before school starts? A skill you could teach a neighbor's kid in twenty minutes?

• Start small. You don't need a formal drive or a sign-up sheet. A basket of tomatoes on the porch with a "help yourself" note does plenty of good on its own. Or organize a fun “Surplus Swapmeet” with some neighbors.

• Watch for back-to-school stress. August is a busy, tiring month for families with young kids. A carpool offer, a spare set of school supplies, or an hour of childcare can be the exact kind of help a neighbor didn't know how to ask for.

Often, it's the smallest surplus, a bag of peppers, a spare hour, that opens the door to a real connection. Start with the harvest already in front of you, then look for the next thing you can pass along.

At SERVE Village, we believe that when neighbors share freely, community belonging becomes second nature. Let's make this the season generosity shows up on every porch and in every yard.

Have you put one of our Good Neighbor Skills to use? Or used one of your own that you’d like to share the impact of? We’d love to hear and celebrate how our neighbors are connecting! You can email us at info@servevillage.org or share it here. 

Good Neighbor Skill Invitation: This August, we invite you to notice what's overflowing in your own life: a basket of tomatoes, a spare backpack, an hour to watch a neighbor's kids  and pass a little of it along. It doesn't have to be organized or grand; a porch note that says "help yourself" does plenty of good on its own, and one small harvest can open the door to a whole street full of connection.