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Mayor’s Youth Academy Urban Gardeners

BusFarm was grateful to host the Mayor’s Youth Academy Urban Gardeners this past summer under the expert direction of Lisa Taranto with assistance from Harris Wheeler, Terry Clancy and Janelle Waldron. We really enjoyed having these young people at our urban farm a couple times a week and getting to know them. Some of the work they did was composting, harvesting vegetables, planting seeds, weeding, building beds and developing the soil. New foods were tried, but watermelon remained the favorite snack. One of the highlights of the season was that the gardeners were able to attend the compost workshop that Will Allen from Growing Power did for us. It was hot, hard sweaty work and we appreciate so much all your help and we hope to see you next year!

Elli Morris Photography

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Get Educated Non-profit

Victory In the Garden Fundraiser with Will Allen – Local Foods Dinner

Suzi and Mark Lilly, Farm to Family, and Will Allen, CEO/Founder of Growing Power. We are so grateful for Will’s mentorship and friendship.

 Will Allen, Founder/CEO of Growing Power and author of the book, The Good Food Revolution, was Farm to Family’s very special guest speaker at our first fundraiser for our non-profit farm and urban agriculture training center, BusFarm, on Saturday, July 14th at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown in Richmond,  VA. Other speakers included Liz Reitzig, activist for farm food freedom, and Mike Peterson, chef and farm manager at Mount Vernon Grassfed, in Sperryville, VA. Lisa Taranto of the Office of Urban Ecology, was our emcee.

Virginia’s First Lady, Maureen McDonnell, sent a letter of  recognition for the efforts Farm to Family and BusFarm are making towards encouraging people to eat healthy and become more food secure. We are very grateful for her support for Farm to Family/BusFarm and her dedication for the good health and wellbeing for all the people of Virginia. The local foods dinner, an amazing gastronomic delight (really the best meal we’ve had all year!!) and was artfully prepared by Hilton Garden Inn Downtown’s Executive Chef, Willie Miller and featured foods from Farm to Family farms and vendors: Polyface Farms,  Prospect Farm, Rain or Shine Greenhouse Gardens, Twin Oaks Community Foods, Rappahannock River Oysters and Clams, Tuckahoe Lamb and Cattle Company, Promised Land Pastures, Farm to Family’s Bus Farm, Plantation Acres,  Agriberry,  Saunders Bros., HopeWater, Sam Kirby, Flores Farm, Rocking F Farm, Amy’s Garden and Flour Garden Bakery.

Silent Auction items inspired some fevered bidding, good natured pushing and shoving, and were creative and fun.  We are grateful for the generous donations from our friends at: Bellytimber TavernBlanchards Coffee Roasters, Jimmy Snead at Blowtoad, Chastity Hise at Clippi Headren, Jason and Chris at Comfort, DeluxEuropaFlavor MagazineHappy the ArtistHill CaféKrishon ChocolatesLamplighter Roasting Company, Lisa Taranto/Office of Urban Ecology, MezzaninePam D’Arcy, Jason Alley and Joe Sparatta at Pasture , Victoria DeRoche and Stephanie Ganz at Pizza TonightRiver City Wild FoodsRural RevolutionSausage CraftTaste BudsThe Hard ShellTuckahoe Lamb and Cattle CompanyUrban Backyard EdiblesThe Water Grill and Catherine Long at Old Church Creamery.

Farm to Family and BusFarm are extremely grateful to all of our friends, family and supporters. We wish to extend special thanks to the following for their generous assistance and support: Will Allen and Growing PowerFirst Lady Maureen McDonnellAllen, Allen, Allen & Allen, Taylor Weirup Marketing, Lisa + Diego Cusano, Lisa Taranto, Bill Cavender, Elli Morris Photography, Happy the Artist, Patty Parks, Denise and Larry Miller, Jenny and Ranny Heflin, Cynthia Sanford, Steph Beer, The Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Richmond and the amazing Kathryn MacDonald, Chef Willie Miller and  Map Roeung, Mark Troxell Trio, John Miles, Marissa Marklevitz, James Luggen, Patsy Arnett, Sarah Headley, Flavor MagazineMolly MacDonald Peterson, Retail Merchants Association, Kat Simmons/Lite 98, Kevin Brown/Liberation Wellness Hour, Style Weekly, Richmond Times Dispatch,  Natural Awakenings, Kimberly HartkeKristin Canby/Farmageddon, Beckie Sukes, Brooks Godwin, Tracy Jacobs, Emily Krause, Danielle Barnes, David Irving, Krissy Etz, Kenny Albiston, Sarah Orr,  the Selby Family, Laurie Lay, Jayme Aronberg, John Lewis, Vicki Campbell, the Swinson Family, the Miles Family, Melissa Krumbein/Kitchen Thyme, Jean Johnson – The Measure Free Hippie Cook, Slow Food RVA, Addie Brugger, Tunji Barlatt, Heather Harker, Arc Printing, RVA Local Patronage Cash Mob, Debra Tokarz, Thinking of You Creations, Mayor’s Youth Academy Urban Gardeners, Dexter Sells, Rob Snead and of all of our farmers, artisans, vendors, USA  Farm Share members, customers as well as our social media followers at home and around the world.

In Loving Memory of Fred.

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Get Educated Non-profit

Will Allen CEO/Founder Growing Power comes to BusFarm!

Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power, led a composting workshop at our Urban Farm on July 14, 2012. Will and Growing Power will be hosting the second annual National-International Urban & Small Farm Conference, to be held in Milwaukee from September 7th to 9th, 2012, which BusFarm will be attending.

Thanks Will, for all the great info and vibes!

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Non-profit Video

Farm to Family’s Mark Lilly with Kevin Brown on “The Liberation Wellness Hour”

Mark Lilly speaks with Kevin Brown about the Farm Bus fundraiser event scheduled for July 14th featuring Will Allen, from the movie “FRESH”  and Liz Reitzig from the movie “Farmageddon”

Farm to Family – Will Allen – Liz Reitzig – Liberation Wellness Hour

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Non-profit

Help Us Lauch Busfarm!

Dear Friends of Farm to Family,

As you may know, we are taking many of our initiatives with Farm to Family non-profit and we are excited to announce the launch of the new non-profit, BusFarm,with our first major fund raiser on July 14, 2012 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Richmond, VA.  Special guest will be Will Allen, Founder and CEO of Growing Power, and author of the new book, The Good Food Revolution.

BusFarm is Farm to Family‘s non-profit extension, dedicated to inspiring and educating others to create a more equitable food system and food security for friends, families, and neighbors.

We would like to invite you to support us in our non-profit efforts. The fundraiser will begin with a private cocktail reception and book signing with Will Allen for sponsors at 5:30 pm, followed by dinner from 6-9:30 pm. The evening will feature talks by Will Allen, Mark + Suzi and others. Hilton Garden Inn Executive Chef Willie Miller is planning an exclusive seasonal Local Foods Dinner featuring ingredients from as many farmers and vendors we work with as possible.

Dinner Tickets are $150 per person and are available directly from Farm to Family, or via Eventbrite. Additional opportunities for participation are available including sponsorship, patronage and silent auction item donations.

Will has been mentoring us for the last year and we are so very grateful that he is taking time out of his busy schedule to come to Richmond. This is a great opportunity for Richmond to connect with Will. We recently finished reading his book, The Good Food Revolution and it really helped put all of our sustainability struggles into perspective — together we can achieve this paradigm shift our world needs.

We have also added a more affordable fundraising activity Saturday morning with a composting workshop at our market/urban farm led by Will Allen. Many people have said that they want to support us, but can’t afford the dinner, so Will has agreed to work hands on with us, which is what he really likes to do. The workshop will be from 9-11am at BusFarm and will cost $25. People should call the market 804-767-8570 or email farmtofamilyinfo@gmail.com to sign up.  We are looking for donations of food waste, egg shells, coffee grounds, brewery waste, newspapers, old paper bags, leaves and wood chips as ingredients for our compost.

Many thanks again for your help with BusFarm.

Sincerely,

Mark + Suzi  Lilly

WILL ALLEN AND GROWING POWER

Will Allen is recognized as among the preeminent thinkers of our time on agriculture and food policy. The founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Allen is widely considered the leading authority in the expanding field of urban agriculture. In 2008 he received the prestigious MacArthur “Genius grant” for his efforts to promote urban sustainable food systems. Later, in 2010 he joined First Lady Michelle Obama as she launched the White House’s “Let’s Move” campaign to address issues affecting American youth and the risk of obesity. He was also recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2010.

Growing Power’s Will Allen

Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.

For more information on BusFarm and tickets to the fundraiser, call 804-767-8570 or visit www.thefarmbus.com.

SAVE THE DATE!!

BUS FARM FUNDRAISER JULY 14, 2012 WITH GROWING POWER’S WILL ALLEN

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Hilton Garden Inn

6 – 9:30 pm

  • Special Guest WILL ALLEN, CEO and Founder of Growing Power, and author of The Good Food Revolution.
  • Local Foods Dinner by Hilton Garden Executive Chef Willie Miller
  • Silent Auction
  • Guest Speakers
  • Book Signing by Will Allen
  • Afternoon Film Festival by Slow Food RVA

Proceeds will benefit our new non-profit, urban farm and educational training center, BUS FARM.

Dinner Tickets are $150.

For more information, sponsorship opportunities, to donate, or to volunteer, contact us:

804-767-8570
farmtofamilyinfo@gmail.com
www.thefarmbus.com

We are excited to have such a great opportunity to learn from  Growing Power founder/leader Will Allen, and bring this knowledge back to Richmond, VA.

If you prefer to donate by check, please mail to:

Farm to Family Non-Profit
1908 S Battery Drive
Richmond, VA 23222

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