Petaluma Bounty

June Newsletter

Lettuce and kale for sale at the Saturday Walnut Park Farmers' Market, June 2018.
Bounty Farm Stand Now Open!   
Fresh fruits and vegetables every Thursday

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Bounty Farm Stand for the 2018 season! Come by the farm on every Thursday, 3-6pm until early November.

CalFresh (EBT), WIC, cash and credit cards are accepted. As part of our initiative to make healthy food more affordable to everyone, Bounty Farm offers 30% discounts for limited income families and 50% discounts for CalFresh customers up to $20. For more information on the sliding scale and see if you qualify, please go to the webpage.

Explore the Unity Garden, take a self-guided tour around the fields, and stock up on fruits and veggies. C heck out our Facebook page each Thursday morning for news of what we will be offering that day. Buying from us means supporting your community farm and access to fresh produce for all!  See you there!

In This Issue
Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps Launches for 2018
Looking forward to a fantastic season! 

On June 19th, Bounty Farm welcomed a Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps crew for the 9th consecutive year. This year, we are thrilled to have a group of youth from around Petaluma join our network of staff, interns, and volunteers. For the next 7 weeks, they will be contributing to all aspects of farm production and learning skills in sustainable agriculture. They  will be supported by a Case Manager in the CareerPoint program, a youth employment and workforce training program of PPSC, and offered workshops throughout the summer on workforce readiness. 
 
"The SCYEC program is a great opportunity for those involved, including myself, to get a better understanding of our environmental systems," says Luiz Lopez-Ortiz, SCYEC Crew Leader, "The crew this year is doing an amazing job at helping cultivate Bounty Farm and we look forward to seeing our results by the end of the summer!"
 
Beekeeping Basics Workshop
Saturday, July 14th, 12pm-2pm
 
It is officially summertime and the Bounty Farm has bees! We've been seeing so many friendly pollinators around the farm's blooms this month. As part of our Bounty Farm Community Workshop series, we are launching the second edition of the Beekeeping Basics workshop. 
In this hands-on class, we will spend time discussing the complexities of colonies and the seasonal rhythms of bees. We will also explore the fundamentals of bee-keeping, including equipment and bee resources. See a honey extraction demo and sample some local varieties. Space is limited so sign up on our website HERE. To stay in communication about this workshop and other events, like us on Facebook! 
 
 
 
 
WHEN: Saturday, July 14th, 12pm-2pm
 
WHERE: Bounty Farm, 55 Shasta Ave in Petaluma
 
COST: $10-20 sliding scale. Nobody turned away for lack of funds, please pay what you can!
 
Have a suggestion for a workshop we should offer this summer, or want to share your own skills? We want to hear from you! Reach out to education@petalumabounty.org.
     ALIVE: Exploration of Food & Farming for Families
Connecting to the land, our food, and traditions together
  
While the pollinators are busy moving about the farm's blossoms, and warm sunshine continues to stretch into the evening, we (interns, staff, and volunteers) are cultivating, trellising, and all-around nurturing the crops in the fields as they grow taller and taller. During this stretch of time, we are also preparing for some of our key summer programs - visits from community groups, sales at the Petaluma Health Center Farmacy, meeting our Bounty Bag CSA members, and more. At the end of July, we will be launching the third season of our ALIVE program, welcoming families to engage with the stories of our land, change relationships to food and the system that provides it, the natural world, and each other.
 
Visit our blog post HERE for more on this experiential summer program and to see if your family qualifies.
     CalFresh Awareness Month Results 
Collaborative Campaign a Success 
  
Another CalFresh Awareness Month (May) is in the books! Thank you to everyone who shared our posts, spread the word, and came out to farmers' markets during the month of May!
 
Due to our collective efforts, we were able to distribute $8,191 in CalFresh and $7,512 in Market Match Incentives to 459 (non-unique) customers. That's $15,703 that was used to expand the budgets of limited income consumers and went into the pockets of small scale local farmers! Those numbers include 34 first-time users over the month! For more results and information on Farmers' Market LIFE, click on this link! 
 
 
     Brews and Bites for Bounty 
Join us on August 27th for our rocking Annual FUN-draiser! 
  
Preparations are already in full gear for this family friendly event! The Highway Poets will again provide music for us all to dance in celebration of Bounty's shared accomplishments.     
If your company is interested in sponsoring our most popular event of the year or you have an auction item that you'd like to donate, please get in touch with Suzi. Sponsorship levels start at $250 and we're looking for auction items small and large! 
 
Information on volunteering, sponsorships, food and more will be forthcoming. In the mean time, stay in touch and get more friends to come by liking and sharing the Brews and Bites event page. 
 
Thanking our Funders and Benefactors   
Without you, we'd be a neat idea factory!   
  
 
We're honored to do the work we love and here at Petaluma Bounty, we're grateful to everyone who contributes to our shared vision.
 
This month, we'd like to thank Petaluma Health Care District for providing a grant to support Bounty's advocacy and direct services work. The Petaluma Health Care District was an original funder of the Farmers' Market LIFE initiative and continues to support our shared mission of healthy food for everyone.