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To kick off Eat Local Month in September, the Co-op and Sustainable Connections hosted the Hootenanny to Benefit the Co-op’s Farm Fund. All ages gathered to celebrate community, dance, enjoy a delicious meal, and to present the Local Farmer Awards.
Read about the accomplishments achieved by the 2017 Next Step Grant recipients and learn about their cool projects. And, see which farms received Next Step grants in 2018 from the Co-op’s Farm Fund.
We are excited to introduce the 2018 grant recipients and share a brief introduction to their projects. Look for updates about these projects throughout the year.
Learn more …
Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 Local Farmer Awards! Learn more about these local farmers and why the farming community selected them for special recognition.
Every year at the Hootenanny we present Farmer Awards that recognize the achievements of deserving local farmers. Join us in congratulating all of the 2017 nominees. (Pictured above are the 2016 winners.)
The farmers of Spring Time Farm found a natural division of labor with Nick Spring taking the lead on the vegetable side of things and Sarah Robinson using her decidedly green thumb as the lead farmer-florist.
Read these two inspiring updates from MAC grant recipients: Familias Unidas por la Justicia and Community to Community Development’s Jardin de Tierra y Libertad. Learn how your shopping dollars directly help the Co-op support local farmworker communities.
Increasing the stable supply of healthy local food for Whatcom County residents is a primary mission of the Co-op’s Farm Fund. In 2015, the Farm Fund created the Next Step Project to offer assistance to farmers scaling up to increase the amount of local food available to local markets.
On September 1, 2016, local farmworkers voted to unionize. Five hundred indigenous farmworkers formed an independent union, drafted a union contract, won an $850,000 lawsuit, and established a new Washington state labor law that guarantees both hourly and piece-rate farmworkers have the right to paid 10-minute rest breaks.
If you’ve lived in Whatcom County for any length of time, you have likely eaten food grown at Cedarville Farm. Since 1988, Mike and Kim Finger have been working the loamy soil at their farm along the banks of the Nooksack River just west of Deming, and the Co-op has been proud to sell their fine produce in our stores since that very first year.
What local food? Support local farms! The Farm Fund help us live our values to be a cornerstone of the local food economy, ensuring that our community and region is capable of feeding itself.
The farm used a secured Farm Fund loan to purchase organic, Non-GMO Project Verified feed upfront from Scratch & Peck. This enables the farm to better control the price and quality of their free-range poultry, while keeping their money circulating in our local economy.
Since 2013, Matt and Jena McIntyre, live and farm off the scenic North Cascades Highway raising a flock of Icelandic sheep, other livestock, and growing vegetables. They received a Farm Fund grant to purchase mobile shearing equipment so they could share their skills and equipment with other local farmers.
