Help Lake Divide Farm Feed Stockbridge Families

Support our community by helping us grow vegetables for Stockbridge Community Outreach. Donate money. We’ll grow vegetables. Stockbridge Community Outreach will distribute them.

Lake Divide Farm is an organic vegetable farm in Stockbridge, Michigan, operated by me, Helen Chandler, along with the farm crew. My passion for farming comes from a desire to make the world a better place through environmental stewardship and connecting people with their food source.

Lake Divide Farm has been growing vegetables just southwest of town since 2017. Over the years, we have had a booth at the Open Air Market of Stockbridge, offered winter CSA options, and participated in other local farmers’ markets. None of these options for connecting our immediate community with the food we grow has made financial sense. After growing, harvesting, and bringing the produce to market, we barely covered our overhead.

We never gave up trying to find a way to offer vegetables to our community even though we had to put our efforts on hold. This past year, we started growing vegetables for a food bank in Lansing, and it gave us an idea. What if we could grow vegetables for Stockbridge Community Outreach to include with their weekly Wednesday Pop-Up distribution?

The leaders at Stockbridge Community Outreach are very excited about this idea. There has been a considerable increase in the need for food distribution services for the community. With food prices going up and an element of uncertainty surrounding the availability of food, this year feels like the year to start this project.

Here is the way it works:

1. Lake Divide Farm has already purchased the seeds and drawn up a crop plan.

2. Donors contribute money through the GoFundMe link. It is then set aside in a “Stockbridge Community Outreach” account.

3. Lake Divide Farm grows, harvests, and provides produce to Stockbridge Community Outreach using the donated money to cover the overhead.

4. Stockbridge Community Outreach will pass out the vegetables at their weekly Wednesday Pop-Up distribution, where they currently hand out about 110 bags of food curbside.

5. Lake Divide Farm will send contributors weekly updates about how much money is in the Stockbridge Community Outreach account, what was harvested and distributed that week, and the cost per unit.

6. Reaching the $12,200 goal will allow us to deliver 110 units (bunches/pounds/heads/bags/quarts, etc.) of some type of produce weekly for 36 weeks out of the year. So, for example, the last week in June, we plan to deliver 110 bunches of scallions to add to the weekly bags. A donation of $111 will provide vegetables for one bag for 36 weeks.

7. Midway through the season, the success of the program will be assessed. If it is meeting predetermined markers of success, we may decide to continue the program into 2026.

8. If we don’t reach our $12,200 goal, we will send the amount of produce afforded by the donations we receive to Stockbridge Community Outreach. All the money contributed will be used to provide vegetables for the community.

I don’t believe that people donating money and time is a long-term solution to our ailing food system, but it is a little support while we figure out how to make more fundamental repairs. I feel embarrassed that I can’t just offer the vegetables at no cost. Unfortunately, I’m not in a place to be able to do that. But I can be a helper. If you are in a position to be able to contribute to our community’s food security, please consider donating to our fundraiser.

Please send us a message if:

• You have any questions about how it will work. My goal is transparency and food delivered.

• You have constructive feedback on how this can be done more effectively or if you want to contribute in some other way.

For more information about our farm, please visit www.LakeDivideFarm.com

For more information about Stockbridge Community Outreach, please visit www.StockbridgeCommunityOutreach.org