First Light Farm To Foodbank Fundraiser 2023

Jesse JHill is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Help our farm grow $10,000 worth of produce for the Revelstoke Community Connections' Food Bank this summer!

Donate what you can. First Light Farm will grow, clean and deliver the equivalent value of our best-quality fresh veggies to the food bank throughout the Spring, Summer & Fall of 2023.

Thanks to this fundraiser, freshly harvested produce that is beautiful and delicious will be delivered to the Food Bank 2-3 days a week throughout the growing season to supplement the Food Recovery Program.

Who we are:

First Light Farm is a certified organic market garden at 2009 Big Eddy Road, 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 more.

You will find First Light Farm produce in most locally-owned Revelstoke restaurants and our 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 our foodbank while simultaneously supporting our small-scale farm; this is our version of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

The Food Recovery Program rescues food from retailers in Revelstoke that would otherwise go to landfill. They have recovered 800,000 lbs of food so far. This makes up a large portion of what is available for Food Bank clients. You can imagine the time it takes to sort this salvaged food. The quality of which is mostly 'less than fresh’. The Food Bank purchases a significant amount of food to add to the food recovery and donations to fill the gaps and to offer fresh and often local foods to clients. The Community Connections' Food Bank believes that offering local and high-quality produce should be accessible to everyone. They value it highly.

In 2022 our Food Bank served 700 households, which is WAY up from 300 in the previous years. It is important to note that the need for our food bank has continued to rise drastically since covid, but the donations and funding have not. Even though they received a big spike in funding in 2020, much of that has dried up and our community is facing post-covid demand with pre-covid funding.

At the farm, we plan to grow our target value of $10,000 worth of food for the Food Bank this summer. We will harvest and deliver it through the season and deduct it from the total donation amount until we have matched that value. When we drop this gorgeous garden produce at the Food Bank on pick-up mornings, the clients and volunteers alike are thrilled with the fresh quality and variety. It's an incredible feeling to both grow food that we are proud of and have it be so appreciated.

We need your help to supply this substantial amount of food for our most vulnerable citizens; with your donation, you are also helping build our local food system resilience and community, by supporting our farm.

Will you pitch in to hit our $10,000 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.