The Kiva Grocery Store

Emma, dressed for success!

Hatching a New Career

Longtime Kiva Employee Transitions from Food for the Table to Food for Thought

Emma's eggcited about her career change

If you've shopped at the Kiva much during the last five years, you're probably familiar with Emma.  Like most of our employees she has worked in the deli, on the register, and around the sales floor of the store, but lately she's most often been seen stocking beverages, dairy products, meat and eggs as the manager of the busy and demanding Dairy, Juice & Meat Department.  Among the many products she's brought into the store are such popular items as Strauss Milk; Fern's Edge Goat Milk; seasonal cuts of meat from nearby suppliers; locally-sourced, pasture-raised chicken and duck eggs; and local kombuchas and jun--all chosen with an emphasis on sustainable, local, and organic.

Emma's hard work, optimistic outlook, and attention to detail and customer service have made her a great department manager.  We think these traits will serve her equally well when she leaves the Kiva this July to pursue her longstanding dream of teaching at a Waldorf school.

When Emma moved to Oregon from her native state of Wisconsin "to escape the cold Midwestern winters," her first stop was Ashland, where she met her future husband Zach.  This summer sees their return to the home of the Shakespeare Festival, where Emma will be teaching preschool and kindergarten at The Secret Garden.

Some of Emma's Waldorf crafts

From the fourth grade on, Emma attended the Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.  After graduation, she missed the close-knit community of the school, and knew it was where she belonged.  She had planned to move to California so she could attend the Rudolph Steiner College, but when she found out there was Waldorf training available in Eugene, she and Zach relocated here instead.  She started working with the Kiva not long after the move.  Her studies in the Waldorf program began several years later.

Emma found that her work with natural foods and her studies supported each other--Rudolf Steiner introduced Waldorf, whose integrated, holistic approach to childhood education mirrors biodynamic agriculture--another of Steiner's innovations.

She's excited about embarking on her new career, and so are we, but we'll miss her--and she promises she will miss us, the staff and regular customers of the Kiva, too.  "It's been beautiful," she says.  "The Kiva is a wonderful place and I've learned a lot about natural food.  I definitely intend to incorporate some biodynamic composting, gardening, and farming into the rhythm of the kindergarten day."

A biodynamic sense of fashion (and humor)

Emma, you (and the new DJM manager, Will) are certainly the cream of the crop!

We hope you'll join us in egging Emma on.