All or Nothing

We are in our final big push to get funded! With just HOURS TO GO, if we don't reach our goal, we won't get any of the funds already pledged.

We've just added NEW REWARD levels to help get us there. Contribute $500 or $750 towards the campaign and become a member of our 14 or 20 week CSA! You'll also receive our custom designed Kickstarter rewards! See the reward details in the column to the right. If 30 people join our CSA, we'll reach our goal!

Great news!

Kelly Services, the agency through which we will hire the employees funded through this campaign, has made an incredible and generous offer to aid our endeavor and to put more money towards helping the residents of Cleveland's food deserts.

Kelly Services has offered to charge NO FEE for the first two weeks of our new hires' employment, which amounts to $608.00.

Kelly Services has additionally offered to reduce the fee for the remaining weeks by $1.00/hour, which amounts to $1600.00.

This means that if we reach our goal, we will be able to contribute an additional $2208.00 towards wages and/or fresh food for these employees! With this amount, some of the options are extending their employment beyond the proposed 18 weeks/ 20 hrs/week, or giving them an additional bag of produce to take to a neighbor. We are so grateful to Kelly Services for this generosity and support.

Who We Are

We are the Farm Food Program at Case Western Reserve University’s Farm, located 10 miles east of the school’s main campus in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2009 the Farm entered a partnership with one of the pioneers for local sourcing of produce within the food service industry, The Bon Appetit Management Company. The result of this relationship was the initiative to establish a vegetable garden using organic methods on the Farm property. Such a project has strengthened our mission as a farm to research and experiment with sustainable growing practices, to provide educational opportunities around food production, and to develop a model for sustainable food production at universities with an eye toward being a vehicle for change in our food system.

Our program has expanded every year since its birth, and we expect 2014 to be no exception. We are increasing our growing acreage so that we can increase our reach, producing food for our expanded Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA), farmers’ markets, and wholesale accounts, including: The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo; 7 on-campus dining facilities; and restaurants and caterers in the surrounding area. Above and beyond distribution to these venues, we will be growing hundreds of pounds of produce expressly for residents living in some of Cleveland’s food deserts. This is the heart of our project.

The spread at our weekly summer market

Our Kickstarter Project

Cleveland has grown significantly in recent years in its dedication to the local, organic food movement, and urban farms and community gardens have been cropping up left and right. Despite this, there are still large populations of individuals living without access to fresh food. These residents, living in what are termed 'food deserts', can be up against a variety of factors, including income, geographical location, and access to transportation. To make matters worse, fast food chains and convenience marts tend to be more prevalent and accessible. Check out this awesome analysis posted by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition to learn more about the current situation of these areas in Cleveland.

This campaign is our pilot project to develop a program for food desert assistance, community education, and expanded distribution, working to change the way we grow and consume food in Cleveland. We, at the CWRU Farm, like to think that education opens doors and is the key to empowerment. Instead of simply giving away food to those who don't have it, we want to teach them how to grow it themselves, and to give them work for the season. With your help, the fundraising goal we have posted is the minimum needed to hire 5 individuals living in food deserts for 18 weeks, 20 hours per week, from about mid-May to mid-September. We can provide free transportation from the University, which is located in Cleveland proper, to the farm 10 miles east of the city. In addition to their weekly paycheck, we will include a family-size bag of produce, the equivalent of about $40 per week of fresh food. Additionally, since we believe education is a crucial part of changing our food system, we will be partnering up with local chefs to hold monthly instructional cooking demos for these employees for the duration of their employment. That way, as the season moves along, they will have the opportunity to explore a wide range of produce that is available at different points of the year.

These individuals will not only have employment for several months, but they will also have access to fresh produce for themselves and their families. What’s more, they will learn how to take these items from the field to their dinner tables. They will be involved with all steps of food production, from starting seeds in our greenhouse, directly seeding crops in the gardens, tending the plants, weeding when needed, and harvesting and marketing the produce through our CSA and summer Farmers’ Markets. By serving as their mentors at the farm, our intention is to equip these individuals with sufficient skills to grow their own gardens and to be able to make informed food choices in the future, while giving them access to fresh, healthy, chemical-free food all season long. NPR's show The Salt recently ran a story about this very matter. Check it out here to learn more.

We will be working with Famicos Foundation, a "not-for-profit housing developer and social service provider" located in one of Cleveland's food deserts, to ensure that we are finding and hiring the people who need jobs and fresh food. This foundation is actively involved in community development and outreach, working to help improve the lives of those living in Cleveland's underserved areas.

A summer CSA share

Breakdown of Fund Use

In order to hire these individuals, we have to contract the services of Kelly Services Temp Agency, for which we are required to pay a small fee. Ohio’s minimum wage is $7.95/hr and we will have to pay $10.99/hr to cover all federal, state, and local taxes, as well as the fee for Kelly Services. With this, below is our projected breakdown of where your contribution will go:

Employee Wage: $3,956.40/person for 18 weeks

Total for 5 employees: $19,782

Weekly Produce Bag: $720/person for 18 weeks

Total for 5 employees: $3,600

Kickstarter and Amazon Fees 10%: $3,209.

Monthly Cooking Demo (Including chef fee and produce): $1,000

Rewards and Shipping: $4,500

We are so appreciative of any support that you are willing and able to offer. Such a large issue takes the work of many, and we believe that we can make a difference with this project. We have the ability to change people’s lives; what we lack is the funding. Our fundraising goal is enough to genuinely impact the lives of the 5 employees, their families, and through them, their communities. If we can reach our goal and implement our pilot project, we will be ecstatic. If it ends up that folks want to contribute over our goal, we can help these individuals even more and possibly hire on additional employees. To give you an idea of our costs and the possibilities, here are some other numbers:

If we raise $50,000 we can extend the duration of their employment to 20 weeks, and their hours to 30 hrs/wk.

At $73,000 we can hire 3 more employees for 20 weeks at 30 hrs/wk, filling all of our needed positions through this project.

Prepping for market

Students volunteering in our largest garden

Harvesting swiss chard for our CSA

Reward Details and Designs

Name a bee!

Most honeybees are female worker bees. The drones (males) play an important role in building the population, but they don't live as long, and there aren't as many of them. That's why most of our suggestions are lady names!

Suggestions:

Thum-bee-lina • Bee-atrice • Elizabeeth • Susan Bee Anthony • Queenie • Mrs. Buzzbee • Bee-yonce • Fizzing Wizbee • Justin Bee-ber • Bee-thoven • Shakespeare (to bee or not to bee?)

CLE Veggie Button Designs

Farm Harvest Festival

As this event is typically held for CWRU students, staff, faculty, and alum, CWRU affiliate backers such as those listed above will be invited to bring a guest along with them.

Take a look at the link below for more details about the event.

http://students.case.edu/events/harvest/

Seed Starter Kit

Includes: 6 6-celled seeding cartons, 6 seed packets (72 seeds), 6 seedling markers, a How-to guide for sowing and growing your seeds, and enough potting soil to get you started. (Growing Guidelines best suited to USDA Zones 5-6)

Organic Cotton T-shirt

Front design

Back design

Farm Tour

Come out to our beautiful farm on one of the dates listed below for a full farm tour led by one of the staff of our Farm Food Program. Explore our permaculture spirals, high tunnel, greenhouse, cold frames, grape vineyard, mushroom cellar, hydroponics system, honey hut, apiary, berry garden, and outdoor vegetable gardens.

Select from one of the following dates: Saturday July 12, July 26, or August 9

Classes at the Farm

Attend either 4 individual classes or 1 series of our Summer in the country, Autumn in the Country, or Winter in the Country classes at the Farm in 2014. Take a look at the link below to get an idea of the types of courses we have. Different sessions will also have various art and writing classes.

https://www.lifelonglearningcleveland.org/dev_students.asp?action=browse&main=Courses+by+Location&sub1=Squire+Valleevue+Farm&misc=360

Farm Dinner

Attend a delicious catered dinner in our historic Pink Pig and explore the farm as the leaves are changing and fall crops are coming in. We will have a local chef prepare a meal based around the produce we grow right on the property. You'll also get to enjoy a brief presentation about the project you helped to create and about the lives that you have changed.

*The date for this dinner is subject to change.

The Pink Pig circa 1940s

Naming Rights to a Growing Area

We'll name one of our growing areas in your honor, commemorated with an engraved plaque installed at the site, and we'll invite you out to the Farm to see the plaque on display.