Sky Island Farm Infrastructure Fund

Sky Island Farm is a small black owned vegetable farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. We run a 150 member CSA, sell to restaurants,hospitals, schools and stores. We have many goals we are trying to achieve at the moment.  We have recently raised funds to assist in building a commercial kitchen on the property. The idea is to be able to host field trips for schools, gardening programs, youth programs etc. and teach about gardening and foraging then take fantastic fresh ingredients and teach how to use them in the kitchen. To extend our reach to groups outside of our county we would like to clear a small area to put up a dozen simple structures for people to stay in when they visit. We are within 2-3 hrs. of 2 fairly large cities ( Seattle and portland) and feel like having lodging would be tremendously helpful for our visitors who come from those areas. These structures will be wall tents on a platform and equipped with heating beds and electricity. We would like to budget 4,000 per unit which would include everything including the excavator work and gravel.  We'd also like to install outdoor seating for people to enjoy what they cook in our kitchen. The outdoor kitchen expansion and outdoor seating area we feel we can accomplish for around 30,000 dollars we're hoping although there are a few unknown variables which may raise the price a bit. Also until the covid 19 is under control we'll need a rather sizeable outdoor grill  to cook on so we can maintain social distancing if necessary.  We will also need to purchase some additional hand tools for folks to use as we sometimes have large groups visit and don't always have tools for everyone. Cookbooks to reference and teach from.  We could purchase these materials for around 4,000 dollars (20 sets of basic tools and as many cookbooks as we can get).  These goals we have set  will greatly amplify the positive impact Sky Island Farm can have on this and surrounding communities which is our ultimate goal. We want to share our love of gardening, mother earth, and amazing food so we can help people embrace a healthier lifestyle.