Dear Veggielutionaries,

Revolution. Evolution. Solution. What’s a Veggielution? We are changing the way people eat. Every week community members come to the farm and work the land – learning gardening skills, building community, and growing food that goes to soup kitchens and our low cost Farmstand. Teenagers in our VeggieYouth program learn about nutrition, cooking, food justice, teamwork, and effective communication through working on the farm.

Veggielution has come a long way since our inception 3 years ago in backyard gardens near San Jose State University. If we are going to keep our programs running, we need your support now. Please help us through this critical time. Our goal is to raise $25,000 by the night of our Fundraiser Dinner, Sept. 11th. Our progress will be updated regularly on our website.

Here’s how you can help:

Purchase a Ticket for the Bounty of Heart’s Delight: Veggielution’s Annual Fundraiser Dinner – $100

Purchase a Table at the Fundraiser Dinner and selling tickets to your friends – $1000

Host your own fundraising event like a summer BBQ to raise funds for Veggielution

Donate Money, any amount helps. Here is what your dollars could support:

- $1000 – Entire program cost for one participant in Fall VeggieYouth Leadership Program
- $600 – 1 Summer VeggieYouth stipend
- $125 – 100 lbs fresh produce donated to those in need
- $60 – Chicken feed for 1 month

Please act now and help us reach our goal. The survival of our programs depends on it!

Sincerely,

Amie Frisch
Director, Veggielution

We are now accepting applications one full time and one quarter time AmeriCorps positions through the Silicon Valley HealthCorps.

Our Members can expect to be fully integrated into the Veggielution team, where we emphasize open communication, innovation, and taking personal responsibility for your own success. We are looking for self-motivated people who are ready to become a major part of our farm community.

Full Time Member: Farm Crew/VeggieYouth

This position is closely involved with running both the farm and VeggieYouth. You will work closely with the Farm Manager to help with all aspects of running the farm, including facilitating volunteer workdays, food distribution, and taking the lead on some farm projects. You will also work closely with the Youth Program Coordinator as you help facilitate all youth programs and lead the farm work aspect of the program.

Quarter Time Members: Community Education

This position is focused primarily on educating the community. You will schedule and help facilitate workshops for community members on various cooking and gardening topics. You will also help set up and run the weekly Farmstand on site. You will recruit and retain new volunteers through our website, email, facebook, flyer distribution, and tabling. There will be 2 people working together to share the duties of this position.

Click here for more details and to apply.

Don’t forget about our change in Farmstand hours coming up this Saturday. Our new hours are:

Saturdays 10a to 2p.

If you haven’t been to our farmstand in a while, now is a great time to come back! Our early taste tests say that this summer is going to be amazingly delicious. We will be selling our first tomatoes, an early variety called Stupice. We only have a limited quantity, so come early before we run out. The same goes for our early peppers. You will also find plenty of zucchini and crookneck squash, green onions, cucumbers, basil, potatoes, green beans, rosemary, mint, cut flowers, and t-shirts.

In the coming weeks you can expect an overflowing abundance of tomatoes and peppers, along with everything listed above plus melons, okra, winter squash, sweet corn, taro, oregano, marjoram, parsley, and more.

Please come out and support Veggielution!

New Farmstand Hours

Starting July 11th, our Farmstand will be open on Saturdays from 10a to 2p. In July, you can expect to find an abundance of summer veggies, including tomato, zucchini, cucumber, onion, basil, green beans, and more. You will also find some seedlings to add to your home garden, and t-shirts for sale too!

Also please note that our Farmstand and Workday are cancelled July 3rd due to the holiday weekend.

Veggielution Partners with Kaiser San Jose

Veggielution is thrilled to announce our new partnership with Kaiser San Jose to implement VeggieYouth and outreach to the Mayfair Neighborhood which is adjacent to the farm. We aim to bring together diverse youth and adults through the shared experience of growing, cooking, and eating fresh healthy foods – capitalizing on the rich cultural and culinary traditions of the Mayfair neighborhood and San Jose at large. We are excited for this opportunity to develop and deepen our programs to reach more of our community. Thanks Kaiser San Jose!

Continue reading Growing Thymes: July 2010 Newsletter

The workday and farmstand this Saturday is cancelled due to the 4th of July Holiday Weekend. Have a good one!

We still have a couple of spots open for our FREE workshop this Saturday, June 26th with Master Gardener Sharon McCray and Susan Algert, Nutrition Advisor with UC Co-op Extension. We’ll be learning how to can, dry, and freeze our favorite produce from the summer harvest. This is the perfect time of year to start making jams and drying those herbs for the winter months! Bring your questions and join us from 1:30-3:30pm. Register here and you’ll receive an email with additional information.  Get excited for in-class demonstrations and recipes!

Also, Check out our upcoming workshops for 2010 and leave us some feedback about additional topics you’d like to see covered! Simply click on the topic of this blog post to reply.

Dear Veggielution supporters,

Veggielution Community Farm’s first-ever benefit concert—Strawberry Jam—was a LOT of fun, and a huge success. We were all very pleased with the amount of money we raised as well as the less tangible rewards of bringing many Veggielution fans together. As always, this was a group effort.

To the bands, thank you so much for bringing your musical talent and words of support to the stage. We had a mix of musical styles that showed the kind of diversity we aim for at Veggielution. We were thrilled to have 15mm, The Emerald Hill, Los Hot Boxers and Panthelion be a part of the evening, and we hope to see you at the farm some day!

To the companies that contributed donations to our raffle, thank you for your generosity. We’d especially like to thank South First Billiards for hosting the show and donating generously to the raffle. Veggielution and its supporters will also remember Downtown Yoga Shala, Good Karma Cafe, REI, Payless Nursery and Hardware, and Philz Coffee. The excitement and cheers we saw while raffling off these attractive donations were a vibrant part of the evening.

To the volunteers who stepped up to make this happen, thank you for your many hours before and during the concert that went unseen that night. Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed the results. You should be proud of the money you raised, Veggielution’s increased exposure in the community, and the unique sense of unity and camaraderie you created that night.

To everyone who attended or otherwise showed support, we really appreciate it. It was important to us to see all your faces and bring everyone together for a good time. We hope you had fun while also helping us financially in a big way.

Thank you all!

Worm Regards,

The Veggielution Community Outreach Committee

Cody Kraatz                                    Amie Frisch                                                Annie Chang

Zan Walker                                    Monica Lisa Benavides                        Joycee Benavides

We here at Veggielution are looking for 18 5-gallon buckets with lids to send home with our summer VeggieYouth so that they can start collecting food scraps from home to bring to the farm.  We would greatly appreciate any donations, which could include used paint, cleaning product, soy sauce, or kitty-litter buckets.  Please email Jessie at jessien@veggielution.org.

Welcome Board of Directors

Photo Credit: Travis Smith

Veggielution has entered an exciting new phase with our brand new Board of Directors! Our organization has been growing by leaps and bounds, and forming a board is an important milestone. This group has already shown amazing dedication to our cause, and many of them have been integral to the Veggielution team for a while already. We feel very lucky to have these talented folks working with us. Here they are:

• Diana Foss, Board President
• Sarah Gallardo, Board Secretary
• Bernardo Murillo, Board Treasurer
• Liz Snyder, Board Member
• Annie Chang, Board Member
• Walker Kellogg, Board Member
• Monica Lisa Benavides, Board Member

Continue reading Growing Thymes: June 2010 Newsletter

The Garden follows the powerful story of a 14 acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles.  A community group called The Edge will be hosting a screening of the film tonight in downtown San Jose.

Friday May 28, 2010

7:00 PM

San Jose Peace and Justice Center

48 S. Seventh St, San Jose

Between Santa Clara and San Fernando

$5-10 donation (no one  turned away)