Hi friend!
Marc here—Executive Director and Poet-in-Chief of Fresh Roots!
First, I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far to help us get closer to our goal of raising $10,000 before December 31 to support the youth in next year’s programs. So far, 11 generous donors have contributed a total of $3137!
You may have noticed that we rarely, if ever, ask you for money. So far, we’ve been extremely fortunate in that most of our funding has come from grants.
But here’s where I’ll be really honest: grant and government funding can be unstable.
For example, two schools recently contacted us to say that the provincial funding for their lunch programs had been totally cut. These are schools with vulnerable youth and refugee populations, where parents work really hard and yet still can’t afford lunches for their kids. Here’s an example of what some of those kids are now eating for lunch:
Yes, that’s a once-frozen chicken nugget on a plain wrap.
These kids are now the definition of HANGRY: they’re hungry, cranky and they can’t concentrate on learning.
That’s where Fresh Roots comes in, with an innovative new pilot project! We are going to work with the teachers and youth to cultivate small farms at the schools, and then youth will harvest that food, work with professional chefs from Growing Chefs to use that food (along with food from other local farms) to create amazing lunches, serve the lunches to any student at the schools who needs or wants a lunch, and then all eat and enjoy together!
BUT we cannot sustain amazing, important programs like this on grants alone.
We’ve reached a point where we can’t grow our programs and support more youth without support from kind individuals like you.
The best way you can help is by joining our Veggie Brigade, our team of monthly donors that helps support our vision of Good Food for All! It’s easy! It’s fun! You’ll be part of a cool team! Any and all contribution amounts are greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time in reading this email and for everything you’ve already done as part of our Fresh Roots family!
With a fistful of sunshine,
Marc
