Zenhens is a Tucson-based urban farming cooperative selling eggs and produce at farmers markets and neighborhood stores. Our core belief and operating principle is that local and humanely-raised food is better for people and the planet, and we strive to share this delicious food and philosophical model with our regional community.
To
help our members, customers, and fans show their affiliation and
affection for what we do and how we do it, our plan is to design and
produce t-shirts, aprons, stickers, and other logo'd gear, printed at
our friendly, local non-profit silkscreener, The Gloo Factory, on
sustainably grown, organic, fair trade cotton. (We’re hoping to
experiment with some unique stuff, like gardening gloves, oven mitts,
and trivets, depending on how well this campaign does!) Your
contributions will make this possible!
Zenhens
hatched a few years ago with just a small group of Tucson backyard
chicken keepers sharing tips and trading information. As we grew, we
realized we were becoming part of an urban farming movement. Some of us
had a few chickens, some grew vegetables, others grew some herbs.
Eventually, we decided to open a table at the new downtown farmers
market to share the surplus from our gardens. We sold Hot Poop Compost
Starter as well as eggs and produce, and we met lots of people who came
by to talk about organic gardening and to trade stories about chickens.
Now, with over 20 members, we’re a Producer Cooperative registered with
the state of Arizona.
Zenhens
believes that we can make a difference in how people think about their
food. As a cooperative we would like to demonstrate to our community
the importance of people growing their own food, and treating their
domestic livestock with kindness and compassion. Our Zen Hens Gear
project will help new people become more aware of these values, and help
others to proudly and visibly wear those values on their sleeves.
Increasing awareness of Zenhens through this new project will create
opportunities to spread the word that we can all take part in changing
the food system.
Thanks
for your support! Even if you can’t pledge, please help get the word
out - Send this Kickstarter link to people you know and post it on
social media.
The gear will look something like this:
Risks and challenges
One challenge of logo design is how it will “translate” onto a variety of different surfaces and shapes. Something that looks good on a web page or a banner might not be as attractive on an apron or a pair of gardening gloves. However, we have a talented designer, Pete Marenfeld, who is very clever and willing to experiment and try different variations, and Dwight at The Gloo Factory has many years of experience printing and silkscreening onto a wide range of objects and surfaces.
Of course another risk when mass-producing anything is that of making more than there’s really demand for. That’s one reason why using Kickstarter is such a valuable and useful tool, because it will be a great way to gauge the interest in ZenHens Gear, and measure how much demand there is for specific types of gear, before the fact. Also, leveraging our producer-members as volunteer helpers during the printing process means we can minimize costs, and the Gloo Factory’s roots in the community and in causes like ours means that they’re willing to work with us doing small, experimental runs of different types of gear, as well as doing additional batches at reduced cost when and if we need more later.
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Funding period
- (30 days)