The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative

Hello friends! Dirtbaby Farm is gathering support for our work this season as farmers growing fresh vegetables and herbs for parents, children, and artists in Philadelphia.

Each year, we fund our Giftbaby Shares through the generous support of community members just like you! Last year we raised $8,800 (via this same gofundme page) to fund this program and our work as farmers overall. This year we’re raising $5,760 focused on the 2023 Giftbaby Program.

Giftbaby Shares are a portion of our farm harvests that become weekly nutritious meals for families in postpartum after giving birth. Late May through October, our incredible partners Paloma Irizarry and Ruben Alexis transform our farm’s produce into these meals. That’s eighteen weeks of delicious dishes for new parents made from fresh, local ingredients!

This year we aim for these meals to be completely free for those that receive them. All meals also include free delivery within the city of Philadelphia.

More about our partners: Paloma is a full-spectrum birthworker and herbalist and Ruben is the chef behind That Pikliz Jawn (a mostly Haitian food pop-up). The meals Paloma and Ruben create feature plant-based stews, soups, and rich, fresh veggie options that are nutrient-dense, flavorful, comforting, and full of care.

Click here to read more about the Giftbaby Program, including past weekly menus and how to order a meal for yourself or your loved ones! The first menu will be available on our website the week of May 29th, 2023.

Any donations beyond our goal for this program will go towards Dirtbaby Farm’s general operations. As a small, worker-owned farm business, every little bit keeps us doing this work. Your support enables us to keep farming with our focus on community and creativity! For that we are so grateful.

All donations made through this gofundme are tax-deductible. This fundraiser is being supported by our amazing fiscal sponsor, Experimental Farm Network (EFN).

EFN's mission includes, but is not limited to, encouraging the adoption and wider use of the following: organic farming practices; soil conservation; composting; seed-saving; perennial crop plants; agroforestry; renewable energy sources; sustainable building practices; bicycle-powered human transportation, trade, and waste-disposal systems; recycling; open source technology and open network philosophy; cooperative organization of agricultural enterprises and societies; and land banks and other means of connecting would-be farmers with land.

Cooperative Gardens 4th Seed Distribution

Founded in March 2020, the Cooperative Gardens Commission (CGC) is a grassroots collective working to support food sovereignty efforts in response to COVID-19. The pandemic heightened the persistent injustice in our food system, falling especially hard on BIPOC, poor, undocumented, and otherwise marginalized communities. Our primary work is focused on distributing seeds to Seed Hubs, who function as central distributors of free seeds and information to their communities. In this capacity, CGC focuses on historically oppressed communities by prioritizing hubs already working with those most affected by the injustices of the pandemic and encouraging seed hub organizers who aren’t working with those groups to do so.

Through over 400 local and regional hubs, reaching tens of thousands of people, we’ve distributed millions of free seeds (mostly donated by small-scale and organic seed companies). Our standard shipping rate is $15 per Seed Hub. One box, on average, can provide 300 family-sized seed bundles. Each bundle has at least 15 varieties of food crops. One bundle worth of winter squash is 20 seeds, and 1 winter squash seed can produce 7-15 pounds of squash. One bundle worth of tomatoes is 50 tomato seeds, each seed produces hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. With a $15 donation to the Cooperative gardens Commission, you can provide tens of thousands of pounds of food, directly to communities who lack access to food. With a $100 donation to CGC, you can provide hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, directly to communities in six different states, creating a significant impact in food access. Our seed donations are a treasure trove of opportunity, catalyzing community connections, a resilient local food system, and a diverse mixture of surprises.

Don’t underestimate how far your donation can go! In the spirit of building community through seed sharing, half of the funds needed in the last distribution cycle were donated by our Seed Hubs! In the 2022 Cycle, 71 Seed Hubs donated enough to cover their shipping costs, and 34 donated enough funds to cover not only their own but also additional Hub’s.

Yet, relying on our Seed Hubs’ contributions can only get us so far in our commitment to provide FREE SEEDS to ANYONE who asks. Our distribution effort relies predominantly on unpaid volunteers. The organizers spend hundreds of hours of work as volunteers, and will only be compensated for a fraction of the time they spend if we raise donations for their stipends. This mission to provide free seeds is only possible with your donations!

Last year, we tried applying for a large grant and were turned down because we could not provide a way to measure the amount of food grown. Finding ways to collect this kind of data is something we are working on, both for CGC, and for Seed Hubs. Sending so many seeds to so many people in so many different places makes centralized, quantitative data collection difficult. We know many localized funding opportunities exist, but as a national, decentralized organization, we struggled to find grants we could qualify for. While a couple of us attempt to do some focused grant work again this year, we still honor the core function of what we do, to request high-quality open-pollinated seeds from seed companies, and redistribute them to Seed Hubs. We humbly ask for your direct support to be able to do this for our 4th distribution.

If we raise $7,000, our facility and supply charges would be covered: including shipping costs from seed companies, shipping to the seed hubs, packaging supplies, and paying rent for our Central Seed Hub in Philly. Additionally, our efforts – while still largely headed by volunteers’ time – could be supported through stipends, allowing a dedicated crew of Commissioners to proceed on an expedited schedule - getting seeds to applicants sooner in the season!

If we raise $12,000, we can ensure further organizing support for everyone who relies on Cooperative Gardens Commission along with the ability to further grow our Seed Hub network. This extended support could include broader education initiatives into topics such as seed saving and garden planning as well as infrastructural help to hubs and gardens across the country. From planting calendars to seed packets to garden tools, reaching this goal would mean that we could be more active partners with our Hubs in meeting their communities’ needs.

Please dig deep and help us.

Thank you.

**NOTE: CGC is fiscally sponsored by The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Philadelphia.

Founded in March 2020, the Cooperative Gardens Commission is a grassroots collective working to support food sovereignty efforts in response to the COVID19 pandemic and persistent injustice. Our primary work is a massive free seed distribution project focused on historically oppressed communities.

 

Through over 400 local and regional hubs, reaching tens of thousands of people, we’ve distributed millions of free seeds (mostly donated by small-scale and organic seed companies). Up to this point, we’ve relied exclusively on unpaid volunteers, including some working almost full-time at our central seed hub in Philadelphia. But this situation is neither fair nor sustainable.

 

In order to continue this vital project, we need your help.

Visit CoopGardens  for more.

 

 

In 2021, our shipping and packaging costs alone totaled nearly $7,000, and our primary coordinator in Philly (the miraculous Kate Illes) worked nearly 600 hours. If she had been paid $15/hr, that would have cost $9,000.


For 2022 we aim to raise at least $16,000. Most of our work will continue to be done by volunteers, but this sum would at least allow us to pay a fair wage to one key person. This is the minimum we need to continue providing seeds to communities in need.


If we are able to raise $28,000 we can ensure more organization and support for people who rely on the Cooperative Gardens Commission to continue growing into a resource for our substantial 300 Seed Hub network. Additional raised funds would go towards Administrative and Communications staffing or stipends, which would ensure that emails and phone calls are responded to, working groups are supported with technical assistance, work that we’ve created is built upon - not lost - and adapted in response to ever-changing times. This will mean we need the ability to provide critical updates and information as things develop internally, so we can share new opportunities as they come in a timely way, and that new resources are developed when needed, as requested by Hubs and Commissioners.

We also want to provide stipends for the Seed Club in Philadelphia who spent upwards of 330 hours last year preparing, sorting, repackaging, and shipping.

As we grow into partnerships with other organizations we would be able to consistently and effectively continue developing new pathways and means to support regenerative food and nutrition security - food sovereignty - in all our regions, together. 

 

Please dig deep and help us. 

 

Thank you.

 

*NOTE: CGC is fiscally sponsored by The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Philadelphia.