healthy food - Veggie Bingo - putting the "fun" in fundraising! - SIBEJO

For 12 weeks each summer, the Hideout, a Chicago bar and music venue, transforms into a hub for community gardeners and the produce they grow. The Hideout is home to Veggie Bingo and its cult following of community garden supporters. The fees, $4 a card or three for $10, benefit a different community garden each week and have helped gardens purchase tools and supplies including soil, seeds, sheds, compost, benches, and scholarships for young workers.  NeighborSpace, the nonprofit urban land trust that supports community gardens, sponsors the bingo night, and pools and divides proceeds among the dozen gardens chosen for the season. Robin Cline, assistant director of NeighborSpace estimates one night of bingo can bring in anywhere from $300 to $1,000. Since its founding, Veggie Bingo�s popularity has grown steadily; on some nights, it attracts as many as 125 to 130 players.

Source: Civil Eats, 7/19/16, Veggie Bingo

healthy food - About fundraising - SIBEJO

When it comes to fundraising and charitable giving, the myths or assumptions are often far off from the reality of the situation.

Giving USA�s 2016 report was released last week and tells us that giving is up across the board, which is likely a sign of an improving economy and stabilizing incomes.  Americans gave over $373 billion dollars in 2015, breaking the record set in 2014.  Gifts from individuals still account for around 80 percent of total giving (includes gifts during the donor's lifetime and via bequest).  And, the biggest increase in giving came from individuals.  

So, clearly, the common assumption that it's all about the next grant from a big corporation or foundation is not the truth!

Religious and educational institutions receive the lion�s share of contributions, but health and human services, as well as public benefit charities, both saw increases of over 4 percent nationally.  GardenShare experienced some of this increase in 2015, particularly as it relates to individuals and participation in our fundraising events.

This info-graphic drives home some of the realities of charitable giving in the US and makes it clear why, if an organization like GardenShare is to succeed, it needs to develop a variety of funding sources, and especially donations from individuals!

Gloria

healthy food - GardenShare annual dinner - a reflection - SIBEJO

GardenShare summer intern, Amanda, reflects on her first Annual Dinner and Silent Auction, held earlier this week at Jake's on the Water...

"There is some phenomenon about both preparing and sharing a meal with people you enjoy. At Thanksgiving after we carve the turkey, set out the cranberry sauce and test-taste the stuffing, there is a hurried scramble to find the best dark meat. Christmas calls for at least two of Grandma�s famous rolls piled onto already heaping plates. Simple summer barbeques are my favorite with mac salad, dill pickles, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, mixed vegetables and strawberry shortcake feeding the many mouths of our large family.

"I cannot eat a meal like those listed above without thinking about who looked like a chipmunk with stuffed cheeks at the dining room table, who whipped the mashed buttery potatoes, who burned the spicy Italian sausage or who skipped the meal altogether to swim in the lake instead.  As humans, we can separate neither food from people, nor food from memory.

Adirondack Fragrance, Inlay Designs, Gene Newman were 

just a few of our donors for the silent auction!

"This past Tuesday, GardenShare created a seventh annual memory at Jake�s on the Water at its annual silent auction and dinner. GardenShare staff and volunteers arrived early to set up the silent auction, and slowly eighty guests trickled in to share each other�s company. Clinks of glasses and twinkles of laughter filled the room as sponsors, donors, volunteers, friends and neighbors gathered in solidarity to make sure all residents in the county can have healthy and affordable food to eat.

"The event fundraised $6,000, which will go towards GardenShare�s mission of solving the issue of hunger in St. Lawrence County. GardenShare is a keystone organization, promoting both local food systems that produce the food who feed our community and programs that make buying local accessible to low-income families.

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"Thank you for joining us in a hearty meal that will eventually put another nutritious meal into someone else�s household. The dinner reminded me how fortunate the North Country is to have a unique crowd of individuals who band together for a common cause. Upfront on Tuesday, I witnessed how the people I broke bread with are interdependent with the community. One man I sat with is a full-time professor, a village trustee, a hunger activist, and a husband. This was the case of many people attending the dinner as occupations and passions mingled together over six different courses.  Hunger, approached locally, is a solvable issue. At GardenShare we say 'Healthy food, healthy farms, everybody eats.' Tuesday was a reminder of how strong and true that simple is to our community."

Megan Bowdish donated 120 tomato and pepper plants which were 

used as centerpieces and given to dinner guests.

Jake�s on the Water was the place to be this past Tuesday, 

especially with the warm sunny breeze on the back deck!

This unique presentation of food in a mason jar was filled 

with farrow, smoked mushrooms and pea shoots!

Behind the scenes with Executive Chef Josh, 

offers a peek of how he prepared the smoked mushrooms.

healthy food - Auction at GardenShare's annual dinner - SIBEJO

A silent auction will be one of the highlights at GardenShare's annual dinner (after the outstanding, locally-sourced menu prepared by Jake's head chef Josh Taillon!) coming up just two weeks from tonight.  Hope you're planning to join us on June 14 at Jake's on the Water.

Here are some auction items donated to date:

Potsdam ACE Hardware gift certificate
Adirondack Fragance and Flower Farm gift certificate and gift basket
Potsdam Agway gift certificate
Best Western gift certificate for one night's stay
Brewer Book Store gift certificate
Northwind Day Camp one week campership
Cinema 10 season tickets
Planter and gardening supplies from Coakley's ACE Hardware
First Crush gift certificate
One treatment at Five Elements Living
Glow Skincare and Spa gift certificates
A piece of jewelry from Inlay Design
A pedicure at MH Studio
Ole Deckside gift certificate
A half gallon of maple syrup from the Orebed Sugar Shack
Golf at Partridge Run
Bread from the Potsdam Food Co-op
Golf and dinner at the Potsdam Town and Country Club
Three month membership at the Roos House Fitness Center
Pick-your-own berries at Sweet Core Farm

More auction items are being donated every day.

To learn more about the dinner or order your tickets, go here.

healthy food - GardenShare annual dinner and auction coming up in June! - SIBEJO

GardenShare will hold its seventh annual fundraising dinner and auction on June 14, 2016 at Jake's on the Water in Hannawa Falls.  There will be a cash bar cocktail hour at 5:30 and dinner will be served at 6:30.  The event will feature a locally-sourced, fresh, seasonal menu prepared especially for GardenShare by Jake's head chef, Josh Taillon.  Tickets are $75 each.

 

All proceeds from this fundraiser support GardenShare's efforts to make healthy, sustainable food choices available to everyone in the region.

 

The dinner is sponsored by presenting sponsors St. Lawrence Health System and Stauffer Farms; partnership sponsors County Seat Realty, Green Hammer Construction, and North Country Savings Bank; and friend sponsors Coakley Ace Hardware Stores, Community Bank, Conboy Law Firm, Glow Skincare and Spa, and Save-a-Lot.

 

A silent auction at the event will also support GardenShare.  Early donations of auction items have been received from Brewer Book Store, Coakley's Ace Hardware Stores, First Crush, Inlay Design, MH Studio, Northwind Farm Day Camp, Orebed Sugar Shack, Potsdam Food Co-op, and Potsdam Town and Country Club.

 

Additional information about tickets, sponsorship opportunities, or auction donations is available at www.gardenshare.org or by calling GardenShare at 315-261-8054.

healthy food - USDA Grants for Food Safety Training, Outreach and Technical Assistance - SIBEJO

The USDA has announced the availability of $4.7 million in grants for food safety education, training, and technical assistance projects that address the needs of owners and operators of small to mid-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially-disadvantaged farmers, small processors, small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers, food hubs, farmers' markets, and others. The grants, offered through the Food Safety Outreach Program and administered by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), are designed to help these stakeholders comply with new food safety guidelines established by the Food and Drug Administration under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Learn more here. 

healthy food - Project Produce: Fruit and Veggie Grants for Schools - SIBEJO

The Chef Ann Foundation has $250,000 available to support school lunchroom learning programs. Project Produce: Fruit and Veggie Grants for Schools is a grant program designed to help increase kids� access to fresh fruits and vegetables and create experiential nutrition education when and where students make their food choices: in the cafeteria. The $2,500 one-year grants support food costs to incorporate school-wide fruit and vegetable tastings into the school's nutrition program. Any district or independent school participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is eligible to apply. Grants will be determined on an ongoing basis depending on available funding; there is no application deadline. Learn more here. An information webinar about applying for the grants will be offered on Wednesday, April 27 from 4-5pm ET. Register here.