Please share if you think its appropriate...this is one of the most important messages of the season......This is my official notice to all those who have come here and asked....inquired.....suggested....and yes even tried to bully this farm.....I appreciate the advice from all of you and you and your suggestions were all welcomed, appreciated and thought about respectfully and here is the outcome......I am not interested in turning this farm into a board driven ....lets fund it to death....lets get Jas on Salary and fix his teeth ( nice tactic...didnt work) entity for the following reasons..... This farm was funded primarily by me by truck driving for the first three years. I loved the challenge and loved every minute of it including year two where I drove a truck on the weekends to Calgary and back because the group of people who were fund raising for the farm at that time respectfully didnt come up with the funding. I have lived below the poverty line for 4 years...yes own a $400 pickup truck...live in a basement...own none of the property...have no savings...RRSPs and dont even have a personal bank account...just the farm account where donations and revenues go and cash donations make it through into the farm by receipts of items purchased. Last year for those who recall I wore glasses without one lens for almost two months and refused to take money to have them fixed yet.....the farm moved forward and was struggling but we made it and exceeded our goal of 130,000 lbs. to charity hitting 200,000 lbs. If you multiply that weight by $1 per lb. despite the fact I live in poverty.....this probably makes me the richest person in the area doing the work that we all do together.... I have been told by individuals that this model will fail which drives me even further to keep going. The people who tell me Im going to fail dishearten me for maybe 20 seconds and I really dont believe they have a clue about what we are doing here. We went from 3 acres on a farm to 6 farms and ninety acres this year...yes ninety using the mickey mouse system that some people believe will fail. We have built the best community here of people of all walks of life and faith/ non faith which I love. I choose to live the way I do and I choose to fight out of poverty just like the people we serve. My situation might be poor financially but in four years I have never complained and never will. I choose to make this farm a zero administration zero salary for the portion that serves hungry people and some people are just pissed out in the community probably because they feel threatened...thats your opinion but mine is very clear.....DONT MAKE MONEY OFF THE BACKS OF POOR PEOPLE. We are opening two retail locations....yes they will be mickey mouse maybe even tents and the 131 varieties of veggies we are growing on the farm will be sold at the markets to support the target goal of 420,000 (8 items) we are giving away to ANYONE who lives below poverty or is having some difficulty taking care of food costs ....I couldnt care less if your homeless....dont have an address or own a house.....Ill trust you. As far as the individuals who are trying to bully this farm into another model...nice try...you forgot Im not a dumb farmer....5 years as a Deputy Sheriff and 20 years as an investigator made me a pretty good judge of character. For those people who have come and volunteered on the farm in the past you need to remember that the project we have here feeds hungry people.....our maybe $22,000 raised so far this year with produce enough food to feed 1000 people per day for about six months through the soup kitchens alone. I am now respectfully asking those who want me to change this plan that has worked for now its fourth year...please leave me and my group alone...we are not interested....We are following a business model....and our business is Charity....this post represents the core group of people on the farm...thanks for all the support we continue to get.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 13:26:15 +0000
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