Farm to Family experienced a devastating loss when an epic storm slammed Willits, California on January 26th with 70 mph winds and heavy snowfall.  Eight inches of heavy snow accumulated on the greenhouse and the load was too much for the structure when it began to rain with howling winds.  Trees and branches unaccustomed to heavy snow came down everywhere, damaging the farm’s perimeter fencing and posts. <a href="https://youtu.be/2XJblo2_0YE"><a href="https://youtu.be/2XJblo2_0YE" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://youtu.be/2XJblo2_0YE</a></a> Our story  Greetings!  We are Cathy and Bill Brown, hybrid homesteaders and owners of Farm to Family, a tiny organic produce farm and firewood supplier in the northern California coastal mountains of Mendocino County.  I use the term hybrid, because we are not quite self sustainable.   I grow and and sell wholesome organic produce to local markets and to our local Food Hub, and Bill sells firewood generated through wildfire mitigation.  All of our business is currently done locally, with hopes to expand with an educational component and my herbal line of self-care products. The year 2019 was a tough one for us financially, so I got a 9-5 as a chemist to pay the bills.  I was still able to sell produce on the side, but the farm suffered from my divided attention.  Six months later, Covid19 appeared. I sensed this pandemic would be huge; and I moved my elderly mother in with us.  Despite the challenges, we were managing., and Mom was safe in our secluded location.  Then, I got furloughed… “It’s ok”, I thought, “now I have all this time I can put into Farm to Family”.  We decided to upgrade the greenhouse with all up-cycled materials we could find on our property; we called this “shopping at our in-house Ranch Store”. I got my seedlings germinating while Bill scrounged materials to build functional, waist high growing trays for me to keep hundreds of four inch transplants inside the greenhouse until able to transplant outside.  He installed a reclaimed bathroom vanity for storage of small tools, and created a small working counter, and converted the in-ground greenhouse rows I grow peppers and melons into beds with borders.  On the outside of the greenhouse, Bill reinforced the fiberglass siding on the sidewalls and built counters with sinks for bunching and organizing harvests.  At this point, I had been upgraded from bending over and creating makeshift tables for seedlings and working stations for harvesting.  I had a wonderful new, functional workspace.  It was glorious!! <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612540120193959_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612540120193959_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612540722973379_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612540722973379_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612540854593447_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612540854593447_r.jpeg" /> I grew a variety of vegetables outside that I hardened off in the new greenhouse set-up, and I was able to produce peppers and melons inside the greenhouse until November!  The pandemic caused restaurants to close, but our local Food Hub adapted to the challenges of the pandemic and provided a new purposeful outlet for my produce.  The Food Hub was using our organic produce to fill 200 bi-weekly FEMA relief boxes for hungry people in Mendocino County.  In the mean-time, my furlough stretched from weeks into months.  I had made it through a great growing year thanks to my upgraded greenhouse. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612545142514700_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612545142514700_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612546317825635_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612546317825635_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612544964835836_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612544964835836_r.jpeg" /> Then, I got terminated from by job.  “It’s ok”, I thought, “its too hard to care for mom, who needs someone around, and go off to a 9-5 job.  I can piece together a few more things to generate income.  I’ll make it work!  I have to.”  What Happened Now it’s January 2021, and it was time to get seedlings germinating.  Preparations began in the greenhouse and I started sifting soil for seedlings.  Then, disaster.  An active atmospheric river slammed California with a massive winter storm bringing snow and winds like Willits has never seen in the 22 years we have been here.  The winds and snow completely destroyed our greenhouse.  The foundation of our little business lay completely twisted and broken, with no way to salvage the remains.  The side walls still stood, but the hoop framework, the plastic cover, and some of the solar powered fans were destroyed.  We are devastated.  We have no way to pay for their replacement. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612541631178769_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612541631178769_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_16125419109310_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_16125419109310_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_161254217756345_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_161254217756345_r.jpeg" /> But, wait, there’s more…the greenhouse was not the only victim of the storm.  The fencing that keeps hungry deer from eating our orchard and vegetable crops grown outside the greenhouse was damaged by trees falling and snapping the posts. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612543530484875_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612543530484875_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612543637453580_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612543637453580_r.jpeg" /> <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/54388650_1612543788831528_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="54388650_1612543788831528_r.jpeg" /> Our greenhouse was the lifeline we needed to extend our growing season. Outside, the season begins May through June and ends in September.  The greenhouse extended our season to begin in late winter, January to February; and to end in early winter, November to December.  Without these growing extensions on either end of our short season, produce does not have time to mature into a salable product. The loss of our greenhouse and fencing is a devastating blow our homestead simply can not  recover from.  My growing season will be cut too short to grow produce that generates income.  This could be the final blow for Farm to Family. When I first laid eyes on the twisted wreckage, “It’s not ok!”, I cried… “what now?”, I agonized… losing all hope, and full of despair, I made a Facebook post to share my loss.  There was an outpouring of volunteers to form a work party that will help erect a new structure, and it was suggested to me that I write a gofundme page.  “It might be ok”, I thought, “It will be ok, it has to be”. We have determined the cost of replacing the top half of the Greenhouse is $4,000.00 (twice that for a reinforced structure able to withstand snow and wind) fans $90.00 each, fence posts at $200.00, and concrete $120.00.  We can re-use the fencing, and intend to up-cycle what parts from the demolished greenhouse we can into purlins to reinforce the framing.  We have volunteers ready to come help reclaim what we lost in the storm.  We are grateful for the offer of labor from friends and neighbors appreciate all the phone calls of support.  Together, we can do this!!   We Need Help For us to continue providing fresh, organic vegetables locally to our community and to help fill those FEMA boxes, we need help.  With your donations, we will be able to make necessary repairs, preserve this small family farm, and continue to give back to the community.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts now for your compassion, support, and contribution!

Julie Linn-Strait

Virginia D Brown

Catherine Heyworth

Laura Grabowski

Michael Chan

Anonymous

Teri Biancardi

Audra Waddle

Laura Power

Jeri Lynch

Trudy McCreanor

lori enderle

Beverly Kahlenberg

Heather MacMaster

Russ Moore

Scott Jeffery

Deborah Damask

Organic Farm Devastated by Blizzard Needs Help

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Organic Farm Devastated by Blizzard Needs Help

Still $2,953 to go. Help us build momentum.