The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative

Hello friends! Dirtbaby Farm is gathering support for our work this season as farmers growing fresh vegetables and herbs for parents, children, and artists in Philadelphia.

Each year, we fund our Giftbaby Shares through the generous support of community members just like you! Last year we raised $8,800 (via this same gofundme page) to fund this program and our work as farmers overall. This year we’re raising $5,760 focused on the 2023 Giftbaby Program.

Giftbaby Shares are a portion of our farm harvests that become weekly nutritious meals for families in postpartum after giving birth. Late May through October, our incredible partners Paloma Irizarry and Ruben Alexis transform our farm’s produce into these meals. That’s eighteen weeks of delicious dishes for new parents made from fresh, local ingredients!

This year we aim for these meals to be completely free for those that receive them. All meals also include free delivery within the city of Philadelphia.

More about our partners: Paloma is a full-spectrum birthworker and herbalist and Ruben is the chef behind That Pikliz Jawn (a mostly Haitian food pop-up). The meals Paloma and Ruben create feature plant-based stews, soups, and rich, fresh veggie options that are nutrient-dense, flavorful, comforting, and full of care.

Click here to read more about the Giftbaby Program, including past weekly menus and how to order a meal for yourself or your loved ones! The first menu will be available on our website the week of May 29th, 2023.

Any donations beyond our goal for this program will go towards Dirtbaby Farm’s general operations. As a small, worker-owned farm business, every little bit keeps us doing this work. Your support enables us to keep farming with our focus on community and creativity! For that we are so grateful.

All donations made through this gofundme are tax-deductible. This fundraiser is being supported by our amazing fiscal sponsor, Experimental Farm Network (EFN).

EFN's mission includes, but is not limited to, encouraging the adoption and wider use of the following: organic farming practices; soil conservation; composting; seed-saving; perennial crop plants; agroforestry; renewable energy sources; sustainable building practices; bicycle-powered human transportation, trade, and waste-disposal systems; recycling; open source technology and open network philosophy; cooperative organization of agricultural enterprises and societies; and land banks and other means of connecting would-be farmers with land.

Founded in March 2020, the Cooperative Gardens Commission is a grassroots collective working to support food sovereignty efforts in response to the COVID19 pandemic and persistent injustice. Our primary work is a massive free seed distribution project focused on historically oppressed communities.

 

Through over 400 local and regional hubs, reaching tens of thousands of people, we’ve distributed millions of free seeds (mostly donated by small-scale and organic seed companies). Up to this point, we’ve relied exclusively on unpaid volunteers, including some working almost full-time at our central seed hub in Philadelphia. But this situation is neither fair nor sustainable.

 

In order to continue this vital project, we need your help.

Visit CoopGardens  for more.

 

 

In 2021, our shipping and packaging costs alone totaled nearly $7,000, and our primary coordinator in Philly (the miraculous Kate Illes) worked nearly 600 hours. If she had been paid $15/hr, that would have cost $9,000.


For 2022 we aim to raise at least $16,000. Most of our work will continue to be done by volunteers, but this sum would at least allow us to pay a fair wage to one key person. This is the minimum we need to continue providing seeds to communities in need.


If we are able to raise $28,000 we can ensure more organization and support for people who rely on the Cooperative Gardens Commission to continue growing into a resource for our substantial 300 Seed Hub network. Additional raised funds would go towards Administrative and Communications staffing or stipends, which would ensure that emails and phone calls are responded to, working groups are supported with technical assistance, work that we’ve created is built upon - not lost - and adapted in response to ever-changing times. This will mean we need the ability to provide critical updates and information as things develop internally, so we can share new opportunities as they come in a timely way, and that new resources are developed when needed, as requested by Hubs and Commissioners.

We also want to provide stipends for the Seed Club in Philadelphia who spent upwards of 330 hours last year preparing, sorting, repackaging, and shipping.

As we grow into partnerships with other organizations we would be able to consistently and effectively continue developing new pathways and means to support regenerative food and nutrition security - food sovereignty - in all our regions, together. 

 

Please dig deep and help us. 

 

Thank you.

 

*NOTE: CGC is fiscally sponsored by The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Philadelphia.