Winter Update from NCFA
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Winter greetings! We hope that you’re having a good 2020 so far. Ours is off to a bright start, thanks to all your support in 2019! In between Give to the Max Day, our SeedMoney campaign, and end-of-year donations, we brought in over $10,000! We’re so humbled by all your support and offer our sincerest gratitude. To learn what we’re doing and discover how you’re helping us make a positive impact, check out our updates below.
In Solidarity for a Better World,
The Workers of NCFA
Program Updates
Foodshare
A volunteer at Grace Place—a Korean, woman-run assisted living center—loading oyster mushrooms.
We had an unexpected glut of food this November when Early Morning Farm in New Hope donated roughly $1,500 worth of oyster mushrooms! Our Foodshare Coordinator Nick brought them to Grace Place, the Aliveness Project, Provisions, and VEAP. Unfortunately the donation was a result of the farm closing due to a minor technicality. Sad news, but just as in the case of Urban Organics closing, we were able to provide a silver lining and rescue a large amount of healthy food.
Year in Review
In 2019 we rescued 309,964 pounds of food! This is equivalent to 24 african elephants, one above-average blue whale, or trillions of bees. Furthermore, with an annual budget of approximately $235,000, this means that for every dollar donated to NCFA, we provided enough food for one large meal. And that’s a conservative estimate, as it doesn’t take into account our garden and community meals programs!
Garden
Our garden produced kale and collards for the community until early November, but it is now tucked in and put to bed for the winter. We’re busy making big preparations for spring; from mid-November to mid-December we held a fundraiser with SeedMoney to secure funds for necessary garden supplies. With your help, we achieved a strong finish of $1,505 raised, which was 2.5 times our original goal! Plus we received a $100 Strong Start Grant and a $300 Challenge Grant from SeedMoney, totaling $1,905! We're sure this money will help our garden have its most successful year yet. Thank you so much if you donated or otherwise supported the campaign.
The quiet winter garden.
Community Meals
NCFA workers Lena and Alison preparing food.
Our community meals partnership program is taking off! On Wednesday, December 11th, North Country Food Alliance cooked for the Lyndale Community Dinner, a weekly pay-what-you-can community meal in South Minneapolis. We donated produce from our foodshare program and received further food donations from the First Nations Kitchen. We had lots of butternut squash, purple yams, mushrooms, zucchini, red peppers, apples, pears, chicken, and ricotta to work with and create into a menu. We served coconut squash soup with chicken or lentils, zucchini and kale salad with lemon vinaigrette, and apple pear crisp with cinnamon ricotta to about 50 people. Thanks to our volunteers Mark N, Emily, and Charles; NCFA board member Jimmy; and NCFA workers Mae, Mark P, Lena, and Alison for all their help making this community meal a success!
We are looking forward to growing our community meals program in 2020! We’re currently researching the possibility of providing weekly volunteers to a local soup kitchen. Sign up below to stay connected on future kitchen volunteer opportunities.
Other Updates
Give To the Max Day Review
This year we raised $1,675 for Give to the Max Day, which is our highest total yet! We’re so grateful for your generosity.
Grants
Lakewinds Food Co-op chose us as one of the recipients for their 2020 community giving round up! We are honored by their support and look forward to expanding our programming with the donation money. It will take place in October, so if you shop at Lakewinds, be sure to round up at the register that month to support NCFA!
Big thanks to the Nancy Somers Family Foundation and the Lisa Stuart Schmoker Family Foundation for supporting NCFA with $5,000 grant checks! As a small nonprofit, these contributions are vital to the health of our organization. We greatly appreciate their support.
We're Hiring!
How would you like a flexible workplace where you have a direct say in all decisions? As a worker-run nonprofit, NCFA offers just that! We're looking to hire one or two more canvassers. If you're interested in joining us, please see our job posting here.
Support Our Work
NCFA is a small nonprofit that depends entirely on the generosity of the community to share healthy food with those in need. With your help, we feed thousands of people every week. Please use the button below to donate online and sustain our programs!