Help local farms survive the coronavirus! To provide us with safe, healthy, fresh food, our farmers must innovate now to survive. Our small farms are hard-pressed to grow the food we need while changing their business models on the fly. Innovation requires money! That’s why your farmers need you to support this GoFundMe. The farmers of the Rondout Valley are stepping up to feed our community with fresh, healthy, and SAFE food during the pandemic. When grocery shelves are sparse and our neighbors are in need, our local farmers keep us fed and healthy. Slate magazine recently summed up what we are seeing in the Rondout Valley: Demand for community-supported agriculture shares and one-off deliveries from local farms has increased rapidly since quarantines started. But farms are struggling to meet this demand. Most don’t have the infrastructure, even as they desperately need the new source of revenue...The collapse of the restaurant industry in recent weeks has left farmers—particularly small ones with low profit margins—at risk. In response to these challenges, our growers are innovating by moving online to web-based ordering platforms and experimenting with coop-type selling groups, virtual CSAs,  delivery and farm pick-up options. For example, Tyler Dennis at Alewife Farm, while working sunup to sundown, is developing novel sales channels to make up for revenue lost from coronavirus restaurant closings. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/47539654_1587573821583699_r.jpeg" alt="47539654_1587573821583699_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" /> Aileah Kvashay at Clove Valley Farm, when she’s not transplanting seedlings for this year’s harvest, is building an online sales website late at night. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/47539654_1587645956237428_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="47539654_1587645956237428_r.jpeg" /> If everyone who values locally grown food donates $10-$100 or more to the Rondout Valley Growers Innovation GoFundMe, we will surely raise our goal of $20,000. The RVGA will disperse 100% of this money to farms who are adapting their business models to beat back the effects of the coronavirus. This is a great way to ensure we, the community who is nourished by local farms, have access to healthy safe food during this crisis and beyond. Thank you for supporting your local food champions - farmers! Help spread the word by sharing this GoFundMe on FB, Instagram, Twitter…!

Rachel Matteson

Elke Zuern

Anonymous

Irwin Rosenthal

Tara Kleinhans

Alice Barner

Jack Levy

Dan Porter

Clara Kramer-Wheeler

Lori Gross

Brian Zitz

Richard Schiafo

Jerome Vogelsberg 

Fay L. Loomis

Lisa Cavanaugh

Steven  Kolpan 

Sarah Hendrick

Help Small Farms Survive Coronavirus

Help Small Farms Survive Coronavirus

Still $14,995 to go. Help us build momentum.