The Ordinary is Extraordinary
June 17, 2022
A Farm to Heart Update
I am so proud of the Farm to Heart and April Joy Farm family. We are ordinary people who are open-hearted, open-minded learners committed to the hard work necessary to tend to the collective good. We are rooted in the belief that food is our common ground. We know without a shadow of a doubt that by pouring our highest intentions into ordinary days and ordinary tasks eventually it is possible to transform the ordinary into extraordinary.
And speaking of extraordinary… take a look at what we’ve been up to in the last eight months.
We published our 2021 Impact Report.
LULAC Grows launched their advocacy video featuring our work.
Our Farm to Heart project and lead partner Staci Boehlke was profiled in The 74 Million, part of Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project.
Tilth Alliance graciously has taken us under their wing to provide fiscal sponsorship.
Sharon and Bob Lewis, in honor of their daughter Laurel, donated a year’s worth of funding specifically to support the unglamorous but absolutely essential operational expenses our small farm has been shouldering. Because of their support, former AJF apprentice Lauren Ruhe of Sow and Sustain Farm, is thankfully back with us this season helping sustain our farm operations while we lead the work and heavy lifting that will be required to shift Farm to Heart from a pilot to a full-fledged program. (Are you ready? I am!)
We hosted our first ever Farm to Heart Convening - which brought together many partners of our unique program to dive into the deep work of excavating our authentic values, vision, and mission and to better understand and gain alignment on what sustainable growth looks like. (More on this to come.)
We launched a partnership with volunteer Jeanne Franke and WSU SNAP-Ed Nutrition to focus on bilingual recipe development and a series of cooking demos and taste testings at our F2H CSA distribution. A special shout out to Judit Torrents for her unending translation services.
Last week, volunteer grant writer Barbara Watanabe hit the submit button on a Washington State Department of Agriculture grant application: Farm to Heart: A New Hunger Relief Model that Directly Connects Local Farms with Communities in Need. If successful, (please everyone cross your fingers), these funds will go a long way towards helping us put in place the infrastructure needed to realize our vision.
AND now we are already into Week 5 of YEAR 3 of our three year pilot. We’ve grown from 31 kids in 2020 to serving 56 kids in 2022. Every week, we learn and make new connections. Two weeks ago, Superintendent of Vancouver Public Schools Jeff Snell stopped in to see our work in action. Last week we had our 2nd WSU taste testing event featuring fennel. Elements Restaurant Chef and Owner Miguel Sosa showed up with an amazing kohlrabi salad that featured pineapple and apples pickled in beet juice— wow! It’s these kind of organic, educational experiences we love to nurture.
Collectively, we are ordinary folks, with extraordinary passion. If one steps back for a moment to take stock, what we have done together is truly amazing— your generous donations have paid for the food, and everything else has been a labor of bootstrapped love.
A Handful of Farm to Heart-ers (L to R) Judit Torrents, Lincoln Elementary FCRC Coordinator, Staci Boehlke, Fruit Valley Elementary FCRC Coordinator, Brad & April Thatcher, AJF Farmers, Phyllis Chun, AJF Volunteer & F2H Program Coordinator, Miguel Sosa, Chef & Owner, Elements Restaurant.
To all of you who have contributed in one way or another to this Initiative, we tip our hats. We hope you are proud. We hope you keep it up!
To all who have yet to join us in our work, we truly hope you are inspired to pitch in.
Right now? Right now my 15 year old farm motto rings truer and with deeper meaning than ever before.
Together, let’s find out what more Good Food, Grown with Love can do for our world. ~AJ
Help us avoid credit card processing fees by sending a check. Make payable to April Joy Farm and write Farm to Heart in the subject line. Send to PO Box 973 Ridgefield, WA. 98642. Thank you!
We are actively seeking contributions so we can expand our impact. We dream of working directly with more producers who share our values. This will both support the financial viability of small farms in our region while concurrently expanding the variety of offerings available to our families. Thank you for helping us make this happen.
