Farmer Flood Relief: Part II
Howdy friends,
and HOLY MOLY! There is ALOT of organizing & event planning going on right now in VT! The coordination, cooperation & generosity of businesses, non-profits & individuals is AWESOME. Beyond the incredibly reassuring nature of all this community-engagement, the fact is that there are going to be many wonderful gatherings that come out of this whole mess. Below is another run-down on what we’re doing & what you can do too…
First, what we’re doing:
- RAISING MONEY NOW: especially for folks outside of VT, here’s a way you can contribute & get a nice gift in the process. We’re selling our organic, fair trade ‘local foodshed’ t-shirts for $50 (ordinarily $25). We will donate $40 of the sale to a farmer disaster relief fund…we’re finalizing which fund & will let you know next week. The remaining $10 will be used to re-invest in another shirt to keep this fundraiser going…which, for the record, is well below our cost of reproducing the shirts! These fine t-shirts, pictured on the right, come in maize or brown. Please contact us here with a phone #, size request & shipping address. We will call you back to get your credit card info. By next week, we should have online ordering set up!
- VENDING FOR FUNDRAISERS: We’re stepping up to the plate for fundraising events that need a food vendor & donating the proceeds. Just what you need? Write us atfundraising@skinnypancake.com. As with the t-shirts, we can afford to donate all our sales less our costs to these events & plan to do this often over the next few months.
- CATERING FOR A CAUSE: from Thanksgiving through January 15th, we will be donating 10% of all holiday catering events to farm-related disaster relief work. Got catering? Contact us atcatering@skinnypancake.com.
- ORGANIZING: at least three different music/food related fundraisers in Burlington, Montpelier & Waitsfield. All three promise to be fun & very fundraising…none are ready to be announced. But rest assured, you’ll know as soon as its ready to go.
Music & food events you can attend to help raise funds:
PHISH: of course, you surely know about the Phish show this Wednesday Sept 14th, their first VT performance since 2004′s Coventry festival. Please do not buy tickets from scalpers…in this case, it is grossly unethical to profit from the event! Hope to see you all there!
Clothing & Food Drive in Burlington:
Thanks to the Main Street Landing Company’s efforts, there is a very successful clothing & food drive going on! From now through Sunday, 09.11.11, bring food and clothing (including infant clothing) in good condition to the Union Station at One Main Street – the Main Lobby and the Lake & College Lobby outside of the Endangered Species Wall. These donations will be collected and distributed throughout the State where there is need.
Three more funds you can donate to directly:
VT Irene Flood Relief Fund (a fund to help small businesses):
“Local businesses are the beating heart of our Vermont communities. The little shop downtown, the restaurant on the corner, the repair shop down the street — these are the places we work and the places we gather. They are vital to the economic health of our towns and the our state.
Hundreds of small businesses were in the path of the raging floods spawned by Hurricane Irene. Getting them back up and running must be a top priority in our recovery efforts – particularly with the critical fall and winter tourism seasons on the horizon. With this pressing need in mind, we have established the Vermont Irene Flood Relief Fund.
NOFA-VT’s Farmer Emergency Fund (a fund to help VT farmers)
The Farmer Emergency Fund was established in 1997 to assist organic farmers adversely affected by natural and unnatural disasters like the recent flooding and damage from Irene. We anticipate many requests for funds after this disaster, so all donations are welcome.
Grants and zero-percent-interest loans are awarded to farmers in need as funds are available.
Mad River Valley Community Fund: The MRV Community Fund has activated a special flood relief fund. We appreciate your donations toward local people and businesses affected by the floods in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.