Grant Farms Fundraiser

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Grant Family Farms is offering us an opportunity to earn money for the Foothills Learning Garden through the farm’s popular CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program.

A CSA program is where people buy and eat certified organic food that is grown at a local farm using sustainable farming practices. When you become a shareholder in the Grant Farms CSA program, you receive a weekly delivery of fresh, seasonal, organic food. Depending on what you decide is right for you and your family, you may receive vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese, mushrooms, and/or pasture-raised eggs. Members in the CSA program pledge to share in the benefits and challenges of local, organic food production from Grant Farms and other farms in the state of Colorado. Through CSA programs like the one offered by Grant Farms, members enjoy eating well and feeling connected to the land where their food is grown. 

Benefits to you and your family include:

·      Locally grown, fresh, organic produce and food products delivered weekly (June 11^th - December 3^rd)

·      Supporting local farm families and the local economy

·      Supporting sustainable, organic farming practices

·      Opportunities to try new and nutrient-dense vegetables that you may not otherwise pick up at the grocery store

·      The most beautiful, tastiest, and healthiest eggs you’ll ever eat (unless you have your own hens)

·      Weekly e-newsletters from the farm with recipes, preserving tips and stories from the farm

·      Meeting neighbors and community members who are also interested in health and good food

·      Access to farm events – Spring Farm Tour, Fall Harvestival, and many others!

How does it work?

You choose which shares you think your family would benefit from most and you choose a convenient local pick up location. Your pre-packed crates of food will be delivered to the pick up location of your choice once a week for 26 weeks from June through December (fruit shares are an exception – the fruit season is only 22 weeks).  For example, for my family of four, we purchase a medium veggie share, a single fruit share and a single egg share. We generally finish all of the fruit before our next delivery but sometimes have difficulty finishing all of our vegetables so we preserve our leftovers or share them with friends. You do not get to pick and choose what comes in your box; your box is filled with a variety of produce that the farm is harvesting on the morning when your box is packed. For more information about what is included, please see the Grant Farms website.

How much does it cost?

The cost depends on the size of the shares you choose. All costs are listed on the Grant Farms website. While the cost must be paid up front for the purpose of this fundraiser, I would recommend that you consider what the cost is when divided by the number of weeks for which you are receiving food. When I did this, I realized that the overall cost was about the same as what I was spending on produce at the grocery store, yet through the CSA I receive higher quality produce than what I generally find at our grocery stores. In addition, during the CSA season I tend to spend significantly less on groceries because I am at the grocery store less frequently and make fewer unplanned purchases.

In addition to purchasing shares for individual families, members are welcome to split shares among multiple families. Many members choose to do this, with two families splitting one medium or large veggie share, a double fruit share, and a single or double egg share. Some families alternate weeks picking up their shares and others split each weekly share. Splitting a share between two families is a good way try the program without being overwhelmed by produce during your first year as a member.

How will the school garden benefit from this fundraiser?

Grant Family Farms has generously offered to give Foothills between 5% and 15% of the total cost of shares purchased by Foothills families and friends through this fundraiser. The percentage they give us depends on how many memberships are purchased through the fundraiser.

How do I purchase a CSA share?

Simply choose your desired shares and submit a completed registration form (available at the Foothills office) and payment (check or credit card) to the Foothills office. Checks should be made out to Grant Family Farms. Once payment is submitted to the farm, your information will be entered into the database and a confirmation email will be sent to you. Email is the farm’s main form of communication, so please give them an address you check regularly. If you have purchased shares from Grant Farms in the past, you may purchase your share this year through Foothills and Grant Farms will honor it as part of the fundraiser. For more information, visit the Grant Farms website or contact our local Grant Farms CSA Representative, Megan Andreozzi, at megan@grantfarms.com or 719.433.6325.

Also, feel free to contact me (Hillary at foothillsgarden@gmail.com) if you would like to know more about our experience with Grant Farms. We are both CSA members and have been site hosts for several years. We are happy to help you figure out how to work the CSA program into your busy life. 

All registrations and payments must be turned in to the Foothills office before the end of April.

FYI: Grant Farms will determine its pickup days in May after their routes have been determined. The website has Saturday listed as the pickup day, but that is just a placeholder. The pickup day will be a weekday.

Donations

As the garden begins to gain momentum, we will need donations of materials, tools, seeds, and plants. Can you contribute something? Here is what we need:

• Reclaimed wood. We need old decking and 4x4 posts from fences. Are you tearing down your fence (or maybe cleaning it up after the wind tore it down for you)? Or ripping out your deck and building a new one? If so, please bring your used (and nail- or screw-free) wood to Foothills to be stored until we can use it. We are looking for 4x4 posts and 2x6 or 2x8 deck wood. Unfortunately, we cannot accept pressure-treated wood to go in the beds.
• Books! Do you value fresh food, gardening, and reading? You might be the perfect person to donate some award-winning children's books to the garden. Actually, the books would end up in our school library or in the classrooms, but would be used to generate enthusiasm for gardening. Here is a link to a list of award-winning books that you might consider purchasing and dropping off at Foothills.
• Tools. We need hand shovels, pointed shovels, flat shovels, hoes, rakes...you name it. If it is used in a garden, we need it.
• Gloves. We need kid-sized gloves, and lots of them. We would like to gather about 40 pairs of kid-sized gloves. Maybe you will see them on sale or maybe you have a gift for getting things for free from retailers.
• Hoses. We need 2 75-ft hoses to attach to the three spigots in the garden.
• Hose nozzles. We need 2 adjustable spray nozzles to go on our hoses.
• Straw bales. Do you have straw bales? Do you know someone who does? We will need a few to use in composting.
• Perennials. Do you have perennials in your garden that need to be divided? If so, we'd love to take the extras off your hands.
• Trees. We would like to incorporate fruit and/or shade trees into the north end of the garden. If you have access to trees that would work well in this spot in our garden, please let us know!
• Seeds. Preferably (but not exclusively) organic seeds. Maybe you save seeds from year to year and could share some of your favorites. Or maybe you could order a few packets when you order your seeds for the year. Or, maybe you could talk to a representative of a seed company and persuade them to donate packets to this great cause.
• Seedlings. Do you start your own seedlings in the winter and then transplant them to your garden in the spring? We could use some. When you plan your seedlings next year, consider growing a few extra for our garden.

As our needs change, so will this post. Consider anything you see listed here to be a current need. If you can contribute one of these items, please contact the garden coordinator at foothillsgarden@gmail.com. Organizations who make significant contributions will be recognized here on the blog (see our list of sponsors to the right) as well as in the garden.

Chipotle Fundraiser night

Join us at Chipotle on North Nevada for our first Foothills Learning Garden fundraiser! 50% of the sales we bring in will go to the Learning Garden. Either show them a copy of this blog post or a copy of the flyer that will come home with your student or just tell them that you are there to support the Foothills Garden.

The fundraiser will go from 4pm-8pm on Tuesday, March 13th.

 

Psst...we raised $1651.45. Way to go, Colorado Springs! And thanks, Chipotle!