Field Trip Fun & Good News for 20 Farms

Once I walked into the kitchen final Thursday morning, I discovered my spouse, Julie, packing at a livid tempo. She was filling a 64-ounce bottle with ice water, chopping apples and strawberries, and bagging up pretzels and saltines. These snacks had been for an important journey: She was one of many chaperones on our second-grade son’s area journey to Pie Ranch in Pescadero, California.
Subject Journey Enjoyable
My son’s class on a area journey to Pie Ranch
Pie Ranch is a regenerative farm and schooling heart about 55 miles south of San Francisco. Its farmers have led education schemes for Bay Space youth since 2005, and now they serve over 1,000 children per yr. Our son’s class was fortunate sufficient to expertise Pie Ranch firsthand. They tended the chickens, did a scavenger hunt to match leaves to their crops, and, in fact, made pies.
Pie Ranch is an superior native treasure—educating not solely youngsters however different farmers and neighborhood members as nicely. It additionally occurs to be one in every of The FruitGuys Neighborhood Fund’s 2024 grant recipients.
My son sitting on the Pie Ranch signal
Good Information for 20 Farms
The FruitGuys Neighborhood Fund (TFGCF) is our fiscally sponsored 501c3 nonprofit that provides out grants to small farms and agricultural nonprofits for sustainability tasks. Since its inception in 2012, TFGCF has awarded over $575,000 in grants to 143 small farms throughout the nation. This yr’s class is the biggest but! In 2024, TFGCF awarded a complete of $85,328 in funding to twenty farms spanning sixteen states and US territories. Nearly all of them are women-owned/led (85%), BIPOC-owned/led (70%), and/or newbie farmers (60%).
Meet the Farmers
I’m excited that TFGCF is supporting Pie Ranch this yr, together with nineteen different farms with a variety of sustainability tasks. Right here’s a fast have a look at two of them:
YouthWorks Ranch
YouthWorks is a 20-acre agricultural nonprofit in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that teaches younger folks about meals and farming. Their $5,000 grant will go towards culturally related seeds, hand instruments, a drip irrigation system, soil amendments, and a post-harvest wash station for the instructing backyard.
Merchandise from Mountain Echoes Farm/Soil Hued Mojo
Mountain Echoes Farm/Soil Hued Mojo in Mathias, West Virginia, grows medicinal maternal well being herbs for his or her neighborhood. Their $3,097 grant will assist them set up two beehives, add a hoop home to increase their rising season, and buy a photo voltaic dehydrator that may scale back vitality use and crop waste.
You will discover a full record of TFGCF’s 2024 grant recipients on this weblog.
I’m actually happy with the work that TFGCF does. For 12 years, our grants have helped small for-profit and nonprofit farms throughout the nation function extra sustainably. The grants are small, however they make a huge impact on the farms and their communities. When you’d wish to study extra about TFGCF and/or assist help our work by donating or volunteering on the assessment committee, you will get the small print right here.



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