Help us keep feeding Athens County OH
Minefire Gardens has been an important producer of eggs and summer produce for food pantries in Athens County Ohio for the past 5 years. We donate through Community Food Initiatives and directly. CFI tells us we are their biggest supplier of free eggs.
We do our best to garden and raise poultry sustainably and organically - we don’t use power tools except for major builds - we work with pollinators, and have an elaborate composting system with our flock of 80 geese, chickens, and ducks at its center.
In order to keep going, grow our operations, and become more sustainable, we are asking for up to $25,000 in donations this year.
The funds will go towards:
- Installing solar panels and a battery;
- Buying walk-in cooler to make it possible to deliver more fresh produce year round;
- Replacing the farmhouse’s aging air handling system (which is on its last legs) with a more efficient one; and
- Building a 20’ x 40’ green house in order to increase our winter and summer produce by providing a space to grow winter broccoli and other vegetables, and protect vulnerable summer crops such as cabbage, broccoli, and bell peppers from predatory insects like the local cabbage moth without resorting to pesticides.
We will also use some of the money for costs associated with incorporating as a non profit, becoming a certified egg producer, having our lot in the hollow rezoned as agricultural, and registering as a farm. In addition to making our finances more efficient, and giving a tax break to future donors, becoming a non profit will increase our visibility in the community and facilitate expanding our educational mission. It will also make it easier to put our part of the hollow into a land trust with the aim of entering it into a land back program or donating it to a collective black farming organization when we can no longer manage it. We think that Athens County’s history of involvement with the Under Ground Rail Road makes this appropriate.
Finally we need poultry feed and fencing as we do every year.
All of these projects will increase our capacity to help feed Athens County where per capita income - based on the 2010 United States Census Data and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates - is $16,642. The situation has doubtless gotten worse during the pandemic.
Please help us feed our community.
Minefire gardens also provides an opportunity for volunteer and comrades without access to land or kitchen equipment, to learn and experiment with gardening and cooking techniques.
Help us keep our gate open and continue to feed our community.
