Farm to Food Bank Fundraiser 2024
Donation protected
Help our farm grow $8,500 worth of organic produce for the Revelstoke Community Connections' Food Bank this growing season!
Every donation helps us get more fresh food to the Food Bank.
Located in the Big Eddy, First Light Farm delivers directly to the food bank on their pick-up days, adding freshness to the Food Recovery Program's offerings. We bring fresh carrot bunches, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, greens, kale, broccoli… the list goes on. Last year we delivered over 1000 lb of produce.
Why set our goal for $8500?
We have run this food bank fundraiser for 4 years and have raised $21,500. This being our 5th season, we want to celebrate by hitting the $30,000 mark.
We look forward to this fundraiser every year. It’s such a pleasure to grow a significant amount of food for our community, including our neighbours experiencing food insecurity. Our farm wouldn't be here without the tremendous community support.
Thank you. Keep reading to learn more.
Who we are:
First Light Farm is a certified organic market garden located at 2009 Big Eddy Road, in Revelstoke. The owners and operators are Chris and Jesse. We grow a large variety of vegetables: sweet carrots, beets and potatoes true to the history of this valley. We also grow delicate baby mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and much more.
You will find First Light Farm produce in most locally-owned Revelstoke restaurants and locally-owned grocers. You will see Chris and Jesse on Saturdays at the LFI Farmers' Market. On any day of the week, you can swing by our farm stand at our farm gate in the Big Eddy to buy fresh produce.
Why we started this fundraiser:
We began our farm to help feed Revelstoke. It’s important to us that our produce is accessible to everyone in our community. With your support we hope to grow more each year for the food bank. This is a way for us as a community to make a substantial contribution to those in need while simultaneously supporting our small-scale farm. This is our version of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Share that typically looks like a weekly veggie box subscription.
The Food Bank & Food Recovery Program
Our food bank needs all the support they can get as they have been operating on the same monthly budget for the past three years even though the number of households that the food bank supplies is constantly expanding, and the price of food continues to rise.
- In 2023, our little Food Bank served 985 households made up of 1,435 individuals through 10,885 visits to our food bank, which is a 27% increase in usage from 2022.
- In 2022 our Food Bank served 700 households, which was up from 300 in the previous years.
This requires 60 volunteer hours each week, serving food and delivering hampers to those who cannot make it in person.
To date, the Food Recovery Program has rescued 937,601 lb of food that would have gone to the landfill. This food is sorted and redistributed for use at the food bank, for animals or for compost. The recovered food is significant, and normally makes up the majority of the perishable products offered to people in need. However as you can imagine, these veggies and fruits were deemed ‘not-fit for sale’ and therefore are not very fresh or of great quality.
The Revelstoke Food Bank believes that local and high-quality produce should be accessible to everyone, and that's where we come in.
The way your donation is put to work:
At the farm, we have planned ahead to grow our target value of food ($8500) for the Food Bank this summer. We will harvest and deliver it through the season and will deduct each delivery from the total donation amount raised until we have matched that value.
When we drop our garden produce off at the Food Bank on pick-up mornings, the clients and volunteers alike are thrilled with the fresh quality and variety. It's a wonderful feeling to grow food that we are proud of, and have it be so appreciated.
We need your help to supply this substantial amount of food to our most vulnerable citizens. With your donation and by supporting our farm, you are helping build our local food system and our community.
Will you pitch in to hit our $8500 goal? Every little bit will help get more food to the Food Bank this growing season.
Also, if you can share this with another person, that will be a huge help.
It means the world to us to be supported by our community and to be able to provide the freshest food to everyone.
Thank you!
Jesse & Chris at First Light Farm
@FirstLightFarmRevelstoke
on Facebook, or
Bruno Long Photography credit: Carrot, Tomato, Tine rake, Chris & Jesse photos
Organizer
Jesse JHill
Organizer
Revelstoke, BC