Moon In The Pond Farm Needs Your Help!
Farming is building healthy, clean, responsible communities. Educating is ensuring them for future generations. This is the world we want. Help us create it, help us to keep it.
Dear Friends,
Moon In The Pond Farm’s mission is to educate and connect people through the thoughtful and natural production of food; to rock our world back onto its foundation through two universal essentials: food and farming.
Our mission is now in jeopardy. We have lost our major source of funding.
For years I’ve supported the education and food producing activities on the farm through wages earned from an off-farm consulting job. With cost cuts, my job was eliminated and so was Moon In The Pond’s primary source of funding.
Without outside income we can’t sustain the farm’s educational mission. That’s why we are writing today, to ask that you become a vital and sustainable part of the educational initiatives at Moon In The Pond Farm.
Please give what you can. Thank you and happy holidays,
Here’s how you can help
Donate
Please make a donation to the farm’s educational programs so that we can continue the important work of teaching and connecting people to real food and a clean, natural world.
Or Write a Check
Please make checks payable to The Nutrition Center*
Send check to:
*The Nutrition Center is our 501c3, non-profit fiscal sponsor. Your contribution is fully tax deductible.
Pass It On
Please forward this message to friends who belive in sustainableity, clean food, and building community.
Thanks for your support!
“…Moon In The Pond Farm is also a non-profit educational institution and hub for the local, sustainable agriculture movement. Scores of young farmers apply for intern and apprentice positions, and school groups from as near as Undermountain Elementary (Sheffield) and as far as Cambridge, MA and New York City use the farm as their classroom. University students from schools like Simon’s Rock and Yale and chefs-in-training from the Culinary Institute of America also come here to learn.” – Adam Casdin, Sheffield Times (read the full article)
Our Apprenticeship and Learning Programs
We have three apprentices working on the farm to begin their farm training. Housing and educating these future farmers is our most costly endeavor. Room, three meals a day and a stipend cost $1,600 per apprentice each month—more than $20,000 per apprentice per year. This is only one of ten ongoing and vital educational initiatives happening at Moon In The Pond Farm.
New Farmers Full-Year Program – Young people committed to a career in sustainable agriculture, train and experience the farm’s full annual cycle. (3 apprentices per year)
Seasonal Internship Program – For students who are only available during warmer months. (6-12 students per year)
Farm Ambassadors – The farm’s international exchange program for apprentices.
Farm-to-Farm Apprentices – Our local exchange and networking program for apprentices and interns.
Open Gate – Open free public access for people to see (many for the first time) a real, operating, diverse sustainable farm.
Farm and Life Skills Workshops – On-farm classes and workshops open to the public.
Delegates to Terra Madre – Apprentices connect with the global sustainable food movement and other young farmers from all over the world through Slow Food International’s biennial conference.
Farm Tours – Guided educational tours of Moon In The Pond’s works.
City-to-Country – The chance for city kids to spend time on, and really experience a farm.
Outreach Lectures and Presentations – Dom’s educational talks, classes, presentations and appearances off-farm.
Netfarm.org – The (soon-to-be-launched) on-line tutorial, free-access website of sustainable agriculture and foodways.
Thru-Hiker Program – Respite, hospitality, nourishment and education for Appalachian Trail hikers.
The Support Your Gift Represents
$100,000 – The construction of a green-built classroom and workshop-kitchen for year-round classes and certifiable, professional farm product development
$50,000 – New clean solar electric, heat and energy conservation systems to reduce waste (and our carbon footprint)
$25,000 – One full scholarship for a New Farmer Full-Year Apprentice creates lasting relationships with other farms
$10,000 – Two full scholarships for seasonal interns turn up awareness of “what it takes” to work the land
$5,000 – Three scholarships for City-to-Country kids for one month brings inner city youth a life changing perspective
$2,000 – Sponsorships for one youth delegate to the Terra Madre conference unites U.S. small farmers with a global movement for sustainability
$1,000 – Five educational tours of the farm for grade schoolers brings 100 kids the wonder and excitement of experiencing their connection to food and farm
$500 – Threshing machine for rare seed conservation increases self-reliance while cutting our costs and preserving important agrodiversity
$200 – New heritage breed Horned Dorset ram brings diversity and strength to our rare breeds conservation efforts’
$100 – One week stipend for seasonal intern helps ease the pressure of a hard week of working and learning
$50 – Two sets of pruning shears for farm volunteers keeps tools in the hands of eager participants
$25 – One pair of rubber boots for farm volunteers means people can work where they’re needed
$25 – One day’s hot showers for the whole crew – The farm always runs better when people feel good, look good and smell good!