The Farm Committee is primarily tasked with operational logistics and planning, including work hours assignments (creating the most opportunities for our members to best fulfill their work hours obligation and help the farm) as well as raising awareness of the farm and our programs in the community.
This season the Farm Committee will tackle streamlining distribution, making it the primary connection point between the farmers, staff and membership. Additionally, we plan to open new avenues of communication, where you can easily find a place to be heard (i.e. more frequent membership meetings, suggestions box, member surveys) and devise new opportunities for members to complete (and enjoy!) their work hours (i.e. babysitting coops, family work days, behind-the-scenes/non-physical labor opportunities). If you are interested or have more questions, please contact the Farm Committee chair Jennifer Clair at (845) 831-1133 or membership@commongroundfarm.org.
During the off-season months, the Fair Food Committee has continued to define and plan our programs to ensure that a broader cross section of the local community has access to our wonderful produce. Across the country these types of efforts are referred to as "Food Justice" (for a longer definition of food justice visit www.justfood.org/food-justice). Common Ground Farm is committed on every level to work towards food justice from how we treat our land and farmers to how we engage with and provide for a diverse community.
This growing season we will again partner with Green Teens, a youth empowerment program focused on sustainable agriculture, to help run the Common Greens mobile market. The mobile market takes our fresh produce to several neighborhoods in Beacon where people may not otherwise have access to healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables. Last summer, this effort was very successful in providing low-income seniors with farm-fresh produce right at their doorstep. We hope to broaden our outreach and education programs this year and plan to bring our bus to at least one new location.
If you would like to join the Fair Food Committee, please contact Lisa at membership@commongroundfarm.org. We hold meetings about once per month with additional volunteer opportunities between meetings. Alternatively, if you would like to support our efforts, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our growing food justice work.
Although our farm produces revenue through the selling of shares, classes and farmers markets, we still must raise money to continue the work we do as well as demonstrate certain levels of support via grants and donations, in order to maintain our non-profit status. The Development Committee of Common Ground Farm is concerned with all aspects of fundraising for our operations; from grant-seeking for programs and other initiatives, to annual fundraisers and campaigns, our annual auction as well as developing a fundraising strategy for our future. If you have a background in grantwriting, development or fundraising or would just like to participate in this very important aspect of our farm, please contact Brian Cronin at membership@commongroundfarm.org.