FBFG 2020 Annual Report

This past 2020 COVID year we coped with the pandemic, developed new gardens, added new volunteers and began new projects.

 

The total production increased by 2 tons from 8487.5 to 12,504 lbs. and the total hours increased to 1446 with new protocols for all those entering the gardens to ensure volunteer safety.

We were also featured in a photo essay in High Country News on pandemic response, and participated in the first online Jefferson County Farm Tour.

Through a donation from the Port Townsend Buddhist Sangha, FBFG established a gas fund for volunteers hit with job downsizing.

Through funding from the Port Townsend Food Co-op, it was the first year of bicycle pickup and delivery from foodbank, Community city and home gardens to the Port Townsend Foodbank.

In the Gardens:

Quimper Grange: 2411 lbs. with an increase in leafy greens and production through the winter.

 

The Grange Garden 

• Provided COVIC protocols to all the gardens
• Hosted to Days of Service for Americorps Volunteers
• Secured a grant to plant potatoes in felt buckets and suppress weeds by locating the buckets on the garden perimeter.
• Erected a third hoop house for seeding and growing out plants 
• Hosted the first ever plant sale to benefit FBFG gardens and projects
• Extended prep tables and roof overhangs for clean and distanced food prep
• Celebrated 100 years of the Quimper Grange pandemic to pandemic with an online segment at the Jefferson County Farm Tour

Port Townsend High School:

1373.75 lbs. with schools closed and volunteers harvesting full production for the foodbank. This was an increase of 905.75 lbs.

As school closed and students were unable to work the garden, volunteers jumped in: weeding, planting, delivering—and replacing the skin of the hoop house from winter vandalism

 

Birchyville:

727 lbs., with nearly doubling size and increasing production by 634 lbs. in addition to donating 398 eggs—about 33 dozen.

• Secured grant funding through the Master Gardeners Foundation and the Jefferson Comnmnunity Foundation for a hoop house dedicated to winter production, 
• Began a seeding house in a donated hoop house
• Added a tomato house 
• Expanded chicken and duck housing and nesting boxes to donate eggs

Goosefoot: 6261 lbs., an increase of 3255 lbs. 

• Goosefoot also secured a $20000 grant to increase production and provide stipends to young farmers, as well as developed a team management system.

Farms Reach:161 lbs. produced in the hoophouse, after theft of crops. 

• Farms Reach is teaming with Goosefoot for management of both gardens.

Swan: 1184 lbs. 

• Revamped the Foodbank garden portion of this plot with a permaculture plan. Funding was donated. Our volunteer Coordinator, having completed an internship in permaculture design created the plan, and her own business in permaculture landscape design.
• The garden has added a new partner in the Master Gardeners who have rebuilt a small greenhouse for seeding, and plumbed it!

NEW: RainCoast: 357.8 lbs.

• Imagine—adding a Garden during a Pandemic! Through the generosity of Mike and Margaret at RainCoast Vineyard, an underused kitchen garden has been rebuilt, irrigated, and set to expand in 2021

Sunfield did not produce as a foodbank garden, but with funding through an NODC grant, was able to devote production to tribal foodbanks on the west coast.

It was the worst of times. It was the best of times. Thanks to all who helped volunteering, donating, partnering, sharing.

Further Reading:

To read more about what’s happening at our local Food Bank Gardens see the section “Garden Locations”. For more “global” perspectives see the “Food for Thought” section. Other topics as listed at the top of the page are about the organization and its focus as well as to the community at large.

Please consider volunteering to work with us or donating to our projects. Please keep us bookmarked on your computer, updates are always happening.

FBFG Annual Report for 2019

You will be receiving posts about volunteer needs and work parties as well as photographs and updates from our new volunteer coordinator, Rachel Smith. Our Port Townsend area gardens continue to bring thousands of pounds of fresh, local produce the Port Townsend Food Bank.

Rachel has already proven to be a tremendous addition to our team of extraordinary volunteers.  We can always use experienced and organized folk to manage gardens. Our partners,  Master Gardeners, Growing Groceries, and the Seed Library at WSU have helped connect us with the latest information on regenerative agriculture, as well as how to use it. Our partnership with the Quimper Gleaners helps with the orchard at Blue Heron, as well as rescuing about 10,000 pounds of food annually, mostly from home gardens. The Freeze Dryer Pilot Project will save about 2000 pounds of produce from waste this year, and provide data to expand this resource exponentially. We want to get more people involved in fantastic projects to help feed the county!

Thanks to astounding community contributions and countless volunteer hours, 2019 and 2020 have seen tremendous growth within our organization. A new team of volunteers in the Chimacum and Port Hadlock area have worked hard to revitalize a piece of the Swan Farm Pea Patch – that, combined with a hoop house and beds behind the Farms Reach Cafe are now contributing to the Tri-Area Food Bank in Port Hadlock. In 2019, we added Goosefoot Gardens at Finnriver Orchard, a plot at Sunfield School, and March 2020, our newest partner: Raincoast Farm.