Dear Farm Friends:
This has been another incredible year at Alemany Farm.
We continued to be a source of food security for San Francisco: In 2016 we produced 20,000 pounds of organic fruits and vegetables, much of which was distributed to low-income families via our partners at the Free Farm Stand.
We have been a vital location for environmental education: We hosted more than 100 field trips and corporate and faith-based groups, and through our weekly workdays and harvest days welcomed volunteers on 150 days of the year.
To sustain the momentum, we are planning to hire our first paid staff in 2017 … and we need your help to do so. Please make a tax-deductible donation to keep our garden growing through this essential hire. This is the only time in 2016 we have asked for your financial support. Just click here to make a donation.
Friends of Alemany Farm—the all-volunteer organization that manages the majority of programs at the site—is hugely proud that we have accomplished all of this without any paid staff. At the same time, we recognize that to continue on our growth trajectory, we need to hire staff to boost our capacity.
So in early 2017 we will take the bold step of looking for a paid, part-time Farm Manager. We’ll need your support more than ever to meet these new payroll costs. Please make a year-end gift today so Alemany Farm can reach its full potential.
Having a paid staff person will be a big change for Alemany Farm. But we are committed to sustaining the spirit of grassroots energy and volunteer drive that has always been the heart of Alemany Farm’s success. Once again this year, we logged over 7,000 volunteer hours donated at the Farm by people like you. We expect that a part-time farm manager will allow us to share this space with even more volunteers.
Alemany Farm thrives thanks to the ethic of the barn-raising: Individuals coming together, without expectation of individual reward, to accomplish a communal task. We have always been a community endeavor—and we always will be.
Friends of Alemany Farm knows that you value the organic, healthful food that we grow with and for our volunteers and for households in need. We know that you appreciate the importance of our educational programs. And we are so grateful for what you have already given in time, energy, and enthusiasm.
We are asking that you make another kind of gift today through a tax-deductible donation. Your gift will allow us to sow the seeds for the future.
Thank you for all that you do to grow Alemany Farm and to make San Francisco more food secure,
The Farm Team