Hello Food Eating People!
First we would like to say a big Thank you! for the overwhelming response and desire for our food offerings. Amazing.
Secondly, we would like to say an equally big We Are Sorry! for losing track of any email threads of various sorts. In the last two weeks we have spent more than 4 hours a day on answering emails. Yes, really. That is more in a two week span than our entire last year, and we have lost track of several responses. We are not by any stretch computer literate and we are totally making this up as we go.
What we are doing to try to meet the newly insane demand for food: Over the last few weeks we have teamed up with Reds Quality Acres, Southwind Produce, and Four Leaf Farm to bring together as much food as we possibly can and distribute through the community in the form of $25 shares ($30 with delivery). This week we were able to go from 35 to 108 shares, and we hope to be able to offer more very soon.
We are planting twice the amount of what we intended to for the coming spring and summer, and I know we aren't alone. The seed companies are selling out of stock left and right. This is also a great time to plant yourselves a garden.
We are trying to create a central Food Hub downtown Durham to be able to offer much more variety, like eggs, breads, flowers, cheeses and meats while this continues, and grocery stores continue to be a scary place to visit. This would hopefully include food from an extensive local farm collaboration as well as prepared family meals from local restaurants. More on that soon.
We are trying hard to get a Free Lunch spot opened in Durham for all the food insecure people that are being left to fend for themselves during this giant catastrophe of governance. From the school students who aren't getting lunch to the house less people who are no longer being fed from various organizations, lots of folks are falling through the cracks. We are close to securing a restaurant space to setup. Any one have a spare $50K lying around?
We are dropping lots of food at houses of food insecure folks. We invite you all to help us with this if your so moved by making a donation that we will use all of, every penny, to put food with those who need. Please give us addresses of people that you know need food.
We are really trying hard to make sure all our healthcare worker friends that want veggie food are being subsidized by all of us during this time. If your in this category, and want help with this please tell us.
How you can order food from us for the next few weeks: Starting this Friday on our website www.lilfarm.com
Don't order through email or paypal any longer! We will begin selling all shares through the website so we can have names addresses and orders all in one spot. At this time, people need to sign up week to week. On Friday mornings starting at 7 a.m. we will make all the shares for the following Wednesdays available on our website. When they are sold out, that is it until the following week. We currently don't have enough food for everyone who wants a share to get one. Not even close. For that we are sorry, it feels awful. We are working hard on increasing capacity.
FOUR LEAF FARM is still selling their beautiful plants! Order them at www.fourleaffarmplants.com. Tim and Helga will make your garden happen.
And, if for some reason you are still reading this bible length email:
Feeding people is our main goal, and we have never tried to take advantage of anyone when they are vulnerable. Because we, as farmers, have always made do on little money, we would like to point out that our prices haven't changed one bit during this situation, in fact they really have barely been raised in the fifteen years that I have been running Lil' Farm. Please remember this going forward when deciding who to reward with your dollars. It turns out local food systems equal community security in times of crisis or in times of plenty. This bad scenario is a good highlighter for all of us to be thankful that we have a local food system that hopefully can weather the disruptions. It cannot do that if everyone immediately, at the end of this, goes back to Amazon/wholefoods with money in hand and rewards bad behavior, price gouging, no sick leave, or child care for over worked workers in a crisis. Instead, consider going to the farmers market when its back up and running. Consider buying seasonal CSA shares from small farms. All that is to say, please remember that small is good and farm fresh is good all the time, not just when we are panicked.
Much love to you all and your families, Please stay healthy.
May we weather this storm and take care of each other, because hopefully we know by now that that who we can depend on.
Call us if you need food, Its scary times, but they will end.
Kisses,
George and Lily and Jr and Kris and Hannah, aka
Lil' Farm