This season was full of community events, outdoor education, meaningful connections, and lots of fresh food.
Read more about the work that we did this year and view our Year in Numbers below!
Youth Education
Farmer Training Programs & Workshops
This season we offered 14 workshops for home gardeners, including a four-part Beginning Organic Gardening workshop series and 2 family-friendly workshops led by our Farm Education Interns! We offered a number of blacksmithing and fiber arts workshops, including an 8-part spinning series with local fiber artist Wendy Berg focused on exploring the diversity of wool across different sheep breeds!
3 aspiring farmers joined us for our Farmer Training Apprenticeship program, an experiential work-trade program that immerses participants in many aspects of small-scale farming.
Indigenous Agriculture
As an extension of our Farmer Training Programs, we are proud to partner with several Villages and communities in Alaska to provide Indigenous-led farmer training opportunities and support across the state, especially in remote locations. This summer, we hosted 2 free training sessions at the farm for beginning farmers from rural Alaska. Participants came from communities all across the state, including Tyonek, Golovin, Unalakleet, Metlakatla, Dillingham, Nenana, Tok, Naknek, Iliamna and Port Heiden. This fall, we flew out to Igiugig to assist them in planting an apple orchard and are currently working with 7 Indigenous communities on a state-wide soil health project!
Community Roots & Youth Leadership
In the second year of the Community Roots program, 7 employed Garden Leaders spent the summer at the Hunter Garden, prepping beds, planting and harvesting! They learned all about the local food system and how to cook garden vegetables from Bread Line's Chef Liann Peryea, and participated as a vendor at the Southside Market, selling the vegetables they grew to the community.
On the farm, 13 youth leaders, ages 11-15, volunteered during Farm Camps throughout the summer, and 2 Farm Education Interns worked alongside our education staff as Camp Counselors, developing leadership skills and receiving training in hands-on, outdoor education!
Southside Community Farmers Market
It was a great summer at the Southside Market! 9 local farmers participated as vendors throughout the summer, providing fresh vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, flowers and local honey to the community. The market hosted an amazing summer BBQ for the neighborhood and passed out free veggies on Senior Day. Pay What You Can discounts up to 50% off were available to any customer in need of fresh food and over $3,000 in discounts were utilized.
The Southside Market is led by a Steering Committee - an amazing group of neighborhood residents dedicated to supporting and guiding the on-going development of the market!
Food Relief & Community Connections
Throughout the growing season, we provided weekly food donations from the Southside Market to ThrivAlaska and worked with Golden Towers and Southall Manor to deliver free weekly vegetable shares to low income and seniors with disabilities. We also continued our new tradition of working cooperatively with the community to harvest and freeze enough kale to provide weekly donations to Stone Soup throughout the winter.
This year, in memory of our dear friend and founding member of the Southside Market's steering committee, we established the Dotty Harris Mutual Aid Fund to support our long-term food relief work in the Fairbanks community. This fund supports our ability to donate veggie shares each week during the growing season to seniors, families and other individuals in need, as well as our Pay What You Can discount system on CSA shares and all fresh food sold at the Southside Community Farmers Market.
Inspired by the work Bread Line does for our community, we launched Community Hats & Mittens earlier this fall. This community-wide knit and crochet project continues to get warm hats and mittens out into the community, to those who could use some warmth throughout our cold winters.
The Seed Garden
This summer was the official launch of the Seed Garden! The seed field was planned and cleared 10 years ago but, after building up the soil, we have relied on the space for CSA crops the past few years. This year, we scaled back our CSA production and finally dedicated the space to seed production. Focused on heirloom varieties that are adapted to northern climates, our long-term goal is to develop a garden that supplies the majority of seeds needed on the farm, as well as seeds for other Alaskan gardeners.
This fall, seeds from about 35 varieties of crops were harvested and we have been slowly drying, processing, and running germination tests on them before seeding time this spring! We are very excited about this project and encourage visitors to seed garden anytime during the growing season!
Our Year In Numbers
35 varieties of seeds were saved from the seed garden this summer!
75 people attended a training through our Indigenous Ag program, including youth and adults from 10 different Alaskan communities, stretching from the Aleutian chain and Bristol Bay to Southeast, Norton Sound and the Interior.
151 bouquets were donated by our community for Hospice, the Denali Center, and used for make-your-own-bouquet days at the Pioneer Home!
247+ local knitters and crocheters joined us in making warm hats and mittens for community members in need!
20 Farm Discovery Guides and 13 Youth Leaders volunteered a total of 492 hours during field trips and Farm Camps!
1,542 youth participated in our education programs this summer, including field trips, farm camps, garden camps, and more!
$3,500 worth of fresh food was donated and distributed to the community through Thrivalaska, Bread Line, Golden Towers and Southall Manor.
$13,000 worth of Pay What You Can discounts were utilized across all of our programs!
Total Income: $786,582
Total Expenses: $773,559
Thank you so much for your interest and involvement in the work that we do!
If you'd like to support our education programs and initiatives to share fresh food, please consider making a donation through our 2022 Fall Fundraiser.
