Volunteer Appreciation Party, Workshop Survey, Winter Produce Outlets

Bountiful Bites

November Newsletter

Photos courtesy of Loren Hansen Photography

Dear Community,

Last Tuesday, Reyna and I were broadcasting the cover crop seed alongside the first raindrops. With the shorter days, cooler temperatures, and wet forecast, we are entering the slow time of the farm season.

This is a time for review, reflection, and recharge as we gave the 2019 season our all. The coming months will bring retreats, strategic planning, meetings, and much contemplation. But for now we rest, celebrate our shared accomplishments, and express our gratitude for what went well.

If you contributed to the successes of the Bounty- by donating, volunteering, or cheering us on, come celebrate with us on December 14th! If you have ideas about how we can better serve our community, don't hesitate to reach out because our programs are only as good as the feedback we receive.

From cover crops to culturally appropriate marketing techniques, Petaluma Bounty seeks innovative, place-based, participatory initiatives to co-design programming that works for multiple stakeholders of our local food system.

In Gratitude,

Suzi and the Bounty Team

In This Issue

Systems Lens to Farm Markets

Winter Volunteer Appreciation Party

Community Workshop Series

Farm Update

AmeriCorps VISTA Opportunity

Winter Farmstand

Applying a Systems Lens to improving Farmers' Markets for all

During the 2016 peak market season in the months of June, July, August, and September-the first full summer of Market Match implementation- a grand total of $14,797 of Calfresh benefits were used across our partner markets. In the same months during 2019, $30,216 benefits were used, which is a 104.2% increase in the span of just three years. By narrowly focusing on the decline in CalFresh spent at the Alemany Farmers' Market in San Francisco's Bernal Heights from 2016-2018, the Guardian article does a disservice to positive trends experienced in the same time frame within Sonoma and Marin. To be sure, both of these accounts-positive and negative-should be taken seriously, but also speak to the nuanced social, economic, and political environments that farmers' markets carefully navigate.

Click here for more information.

Save the Date: Volunteer Appreciation and Winter Solstice Party, December 14th

Whether you're a long time volunteer or brand new to the Bounty Farm we want to celebrate you and all the hard work that helps our food system work better for all! Join us as we close out the volunteer season and usher in the cool winter months by making pizzas in the cob oven. All refreshments will be provided, but if you would like to bring a pizza topping or dish to share, feel free. There will also be some craft activities for the whole family. We can't wait to celebrate with you all!

Community Workshop Series at Bounty Farm

We will be launching our Community Workshop Series at the Bounty Farm, but first, we want to hear from YOU! What workshops would you be interested in seeing at the farm? Want to learn about beekeeping, fermenting, or medicinal herbs? Do you have a unique skill and want to teach a workshop? Please help us inform our workshop series by filling out this community workshop interest survey. Your feedback is essential!

What's Happening at the Bounty Community Farm

Fall farm crops have been preparing for their debut since August, as we began our winter Saturday Farmstand. There you will find the bountiful fruits of our collective labor: broccoli, cauliflower, three kinds of kale, arugula, lettuce, chives and many more! It is a joy to see the brassicae plants thrive in their preferred weather and an even more joyous feeling to know we can continue our sliding-scale farmstand as well as our Farmacy outlets, offering more affordable, fresh organic produce longer into the season.

To read on, click here.

AmeriCorps VISTA Opportunity at Bounty Farm

Petaluma Bounty is proud to partner with Harvest Against Hunger's VISTA program in hosting a gleaning coordinator at the Bounty Farm beginning February 2020.

The AmeriCorps volunteer will provide capacity building support to a food recovery program, a demonstration production farm, nutrition incentive distribution programs, healthy eating initiatives, and mapping initiatives of our existing emergency food distribution network. For more information please visit the Idealist posting or read more on our website .

Bounty Winter Farmstand

We have officially launched our Winter Farmstand! Stop by each Saturday from 11-2pm until January 11th and stock up on some farm-fresh winter veggies including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, beets, radishes, lettuce, and more! You can purchase farm fresh produce through various forms of payments: cash, credit, WIC, EBT/Food Stamps, local checks and as part of our initiative to make healthy food more affordable to everyone, Bounty Farm Stand offers 30% discounts for limited income families and 50% discounts for CalFresh customers up to $10.

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