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on December 13, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #10Rewards are FINALLY ready to send!
Post CommentHey there friends!
It took a while to get all the rewards made and then sorted, packaged, and addressed, but they are finally ready to send! Woo hoo! Thanks for your patience, they'll be sent out early this week so check the mail! Also, if you requested a tax donation letter, those will be arriving separately from our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Parks Trust.
We made extra of a few of the rewards and put them up on an etsy shop, so if someone you know may be interested in a "wonderful fruits of San Francisco" calendar, or some jam recipe cards, they could check them out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ProduceToThePeople
The following Thank You letter is included with all the rewards, but I wanted to post it here as well for the folks who chose not to receive a reward:
Hi there!
Thank you for supporting Produce to the People in our recent kickstarter fundraiser! Thanks to you, we raised a total of $10,223 in direct community support!
But where will the $ go?!
We strive for transparency and believe that you should know what you are investing in when you spend your hard-earned money on our project. This is the plan:-- $6000. Create a modest six month director stipend to get started moving
towards a more sustainable business model for the organization.
-- $1350. Pay off our liability and youth group insurance through Dec. 2011.
-- $1540. Put aside for 2011 youth program (with potential to hire a summer
program assistant), as well as miscellaneous tools and supplies.
-- $1330. Pay all the fees associated with kickstarter, amazon payments, and our
fiscal sponsor (which we are happy to do, as we appreciate these services).One of our intentions with the kickstarter campaign was to illustrate to future funders the community interest and support backing our organization. Since the close of the pledge drive, we have managed to leverage the funds raised and received two grants earmarked for the development of the Free Farm (SFPT Innovator Award- $1500, RSF Social Finance- Amount TBD), and one grant earmarked for our Summer Youth Program (Foundation for Sustainability and Innovation- $3000). We believe that the pledge drive is living up to it’s name, a kickstart, and we are determined to make the most of every dollar as we move forward.
If you requested a tax receipt for your donation, you will be receiving it separately from our fiscal sponsor, The San Francisco Parks Trust. Please feel free to contact me at producetothepeople@gmail.com if you have any questions about your donation.
Sincerely,
Lauren AndersonDirector
Produce to the People -
on October 18, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #9Last call for sending along your info!
For backers only
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on October 2, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #8Woo Hoo!
Post CommentHey Everyone!
WE MADE IT!!!
I am so excited, amazed, overwhelmed. I'm still not sure how to express my gratitude, so I'll just start with THANK YOU.
Thank you for believing in the power of this work, and believing that a small, grassroots effort can make a difference. To the folks who pledged, folks who wrote beautiful emails to all their friends and family, folks who clogged up their blogs/facebook walls/twitter feeds on our behalf... Thank you. I feel so humbled and so empowered by the experience and everything to come. A million times Thank You.
I will be back in touch after the weekend (big pear harvest!) requesting everyone's info for tax receipts, blog shout-outs, and any details about rewards. If you need any help with amazon payments, I admittedly don't know much, but get in touch, I'm sure we can figure it out together.
Much love,
Lauren -
on September 29, 2010Funded!
Produce to the People: Community through Food by Lauren Anderson
PttP is a food justice and youth development non-profit in San Francisco, working to glean, garden and give out locally grown, organic produce.
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102% funded $10,223 pledged
- 112 backers
- Funded Sep 29, 2010
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on September 24, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #7A matching offer, and LAST CALL for pledges!
We still need your help!
The Produce to the People pledge drive ends Sept. 29th and we still have a ways to go! We have a private donor offering a double match up to $1,000, meaning that every donation we receive up to $1,000, will be met with double that amount. So when you donate $5, we get $15, and when you donate $100, we get $300. Even with this generous match offer, we still need to raise at least $1,600 (outside the matching funds) in the next 5 days to make our $10,000 goal.
We have always believed in the adage that it takes a village- and we are asking for your support. We have learned time and time again through our partnerships, volunteers, neighbors, and friends, that a strong community is made by individuals investment in it. Produce to the People has come this far by way of all the gracious and inspired help we've received, and we know we have the potential to do so much more with a broader support base. Any amount you can donate (pledges start at $3) will be greatly appreciated, and a another step towards our goal.
Thanks so much to everyone who's donated, spread the word, watched our video, and all the folks that have helped pick fruit, grow produce, and make healthy food more accessible to everyone in our community.
All my best,
Lauren
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on September 18, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #6Travels and Timelines
Post CommentWe have 10 days left and a whopping $4,405 to go!
Please help us out by spreading the word, let people know that you donated and that you believe in the work we do, the food we share, and the community we build. Collectively, you are all our best resource, word of mouth is the way we find new trees to harvest, meet folks who want to garden, and get the word out to garner support to keep the organization going. Thanks for all your help!
Again, just to make it easy on you, here's the link!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1216293948/produce-to-the-people-community-through-foodFor more news, I just got back from a whirlwind cross country drive with Case, our summer program assistant, as he was heading home to Columbus, OH after finishing up his year of service with LVC. We thought this was a great opportunity to check out a small, small taste of other urban agriculture, food justice, and just good old fashioned home food gardening that's going on outside of the amazing little bubble of action in the bay area.
It was a brief but jam packed and wholly inspiring trip, and I've been slowly but surely processing all the amazing things we saw and gathering all the thoughts and images into posts on our news and events blog. So far there are posts up for:
Prescott, AZ (http://producetothepeople.blogspot.com/2010/09/prescott-az.html)
Taos, NM (http://producetothepeople.blogspot.com/2010/09/taos-nm.html)
and soon to be posts on Little Rock, AK, Liberty, TN, and Columbus, OH, which you can check back for towards the end of the weekend. I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the whole experience, especially by knowing that we were really just scratching the surface of all the awesome projects that are happening across this country (let alone across the world!).
Here are a few pictures from the trip just to give you a little taste!
All my best,
Lauren -
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on September 1, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #5Call for action!
Post CommentHello friends, backers, local produce enthusiasts, community gardeners and beyond!
We are a little over halfway through our pledge drive (27 days to go!) but not nearly as far along toward our goal as we'd like to be. We deeply appreciate all the support we've garnered so far, but we're going to need some more to put that support into action! We are asking for your help to spread the word to anyone that may be interested in our story, our mission, and our work. Please forward the link via email, post on facebook, twitter, blogs, send out handwritten letters and postcards, make telephone calls, help us get the word out in whatever way you communicate with the world. I wanted to make it easy as pie (and who doesn't like pie?!) so I made a brief blurb below that you can copy and paste into emails if you like (although you may have to adjust it a bit to reflect your own personal pizazz).
Thanks so much for your help!
Much peace and love,
LaurenHey friend!
Just wanted to pass along this great food justice project happening in San Francisco, Produce to the People! (www.producetothepeople.org) It's a small, grassroots non-profit that harvests backyard fruit that would otherwise go to waste, creates food gardens on unused land, and gives all the produce away through local free food distribution sites, like food pantries and soup kitchens. They also have a summer youth employment and education program that hires high school students and engages them in their community and local food system. PttP is in the middle of an online pledge drive right now and are looking for support. You can pledge any amount $3 or more with your credit/debit card via Amazon, and even get some really cool handmade rewards for pledges in different denominations. Please check out this link: (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1216293948/produce-to-the-people-community-through-food) to watch their video for more information, and to make a pledge.
Thanks and best!
Your friend,
You! -
on August 25, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #4Bay Area Folks... Come eat Ice Cream with us tomorrow night!
Post CommentIce Cream to the People!
a benefit for Produce to the PeopleThursday, August 26th, 2010. 5-9pm
El Rio (Mission @ Precita)$10-30 suggested donation
(no one turned away for lack of funds)Ice Cream Social!
featuring:Straus Family Creamery Organic Ice Cream
Maggie Mudd's Vegan Ice Cream
Equal Exchange Fair Trade, Organic Chocolate
locally harvested fruit compotes and homemade herb syrups by Produce to the People
Ice Cream Scooped by TEAM SCOOP!
Feel Good Jamz by Gigi DidiSilent Auction!
featuring:Awesome Private Workshops!!
Homebrewing Beer with Master Brewer Jim Boyd
Fermentation 101 with Finn Cunningham of Source Press
Home Canning Fruit Jams and Butters with Lauren Anderson of Produce to the People and The Free FarmAmazing work by Local Artists!!
Gregory Bartlett (The Spare Room Project)
Brooke Budner (Little City Gardens, the Greenhorns)
Chelsea Rae Klein (Descry Magazine, Through the Lens Project)
Zoey Kroll (Edible Office, Hayes Valley Farm)Fabulous Goodie Baskets!!
featuring delicious preserved goods, jams, fruit butters, chutneys, pickles, herbed salts and sugars and more! As well as delightful home made bath goods, shampoo, lip balm, bath salts, and more!
Goodies by:
Captain Blankenship
The Farmentors (Hayes Valley Farm)
Happy Girl Kitchen Co.
The Institute of Urban Homesteading
Lauren Anderson (Produce to the People, The Free Farm)
Slow Jams
Tree (The Free Farmstand, The Free Farm)
Witches' Sabbat and On the HuntRaffle Raffle!
featuring Gift Certificates from:The Cowgirl Creamery
Cynically Delicious Cupcakes
The Front Porch
FUSEBOX by CrushPad
Magnolia Pub and Brewery
Mission Pie
Not Just Flowers
The Scarlet Sage Herb Co.
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on August 23, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #3Summer Goodbyes
Post CommentOur second annual summer youth program finished up at the end of last week, just in time to coincide with the sweet, slow finish of plum season. It's a bittersweet time, while I'm sad to see all of this summer goodness pass, we had such an amazing, productive and bountiful season that I can't help but feel proud of all we've accomplished and look forward to all the goodness to come.
So far this summer we’ve picked and distributed 1,966 lbs of local fruit since mid-June, and largely with the help of Bon, Isaac, Jaime, and Jason, the awesome group of four young men in our Summer Youth Employment and Education Program. The youth also helped maintain the Mission High Garden during school break, and helped plant and harvest at the Free Farm (which has grown, harvested and distributed for free 1,291 lbs of organic, San Francisco produce since the farm started in January and distribution started in April). They also enthusiastically tackled the job of creating recycled wood walls for the composting toilet, a job which has been bravely spearheaded by Case and Steve, but avoided by even some of our most down and dirty volunteers on the workday task lists (myself included!).
We also helped give out local produce at our good friend Tree's weekly produce stand, the Free Farmstand (www.freefarmstand.org) at Parque Ninos Unidos, and have been dropping fruit off at the Julian Pantry at St. John’s Church in the Mission. Big thanks to the dedication of our amazing youth workers, the support from MYEEP and SWEP (the programs we partner with to hire the youth), everyone at the Free Farm, Mission High, Free Farmstand and Julian Pantry, and all the folks around town that offered their fruit for harvest.
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on August 9, 2010
Lauren Anderson
Posted project update #2A little press...
Post CommentProduce to the People was recently featured in a lovely multi-media (sound and photos) slideshow on the El Tecolote website which you can find here:
http://eltecolote.org/content/2010/07/produce-to-the-people/
I was especially happy with this slideshow because it featured the backyard harvest project, but really focused on the youth employment program and even has two of our youth from this summer, Jason and Jaime, speaking about why they think the work they've been doing is important. And the photos (by Sharah Nieto) are quite beautiful.
We were also recently featured in an article on Edible SF cleverly titled "Urban Agtivist". This article focuses more on how some Urban Agriculture projects get started and then manage to support and sustain themselves (which seems quite relevant in this forum of kickstarter). I have a few things to say about funding and the financial aspects of developing and maintaining an organization that's primary intention is to provide free food and free services. You can find that article here:
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/sanfrancisco/index.php...
Any thoughts? I'd love if we could get a discussion going...
Lauren Anderson
San Francisco, CA
Lauren is the founder and director of Produce to the People, a food justice organization in San Francisco, CA. She is also a garden and compost educator and activist that loves growing food and feeding people. She is an avid fermenter and canner and ... view more
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