Community Shares Fundraiser, March 17

Join the Athens Community Farm and Gang Greene Farmer Alliance at Subversive Brewing on Friday, March 17, 4-9 PM to raise funds for their Community Shares program.

Subversive will be generously donating 20% of all sales of the night to this important local initiative.

Photo by Sarah Grinberg

What is Community Shares? The Community Shares program is a collaboration between the Athens Community Farm and the Gang Greene Farmer Alliance. The concept is pretty simple: local farmers are provided with a dependable sales outlet and funds at a critical point in their growing season while pantries receive consistent and dependable deliveries of hyper-local, nutrient-dense food! Learn more about our past work and plans for the 2023 season here.

Can’t make the event? Donations can also be made directly here.

This year the team will run a six month pilot program expanding Community Shares from Athens into Catskill and Coxsackie. Increasing the impact of this unique program will require additional resources we believe are available within the community. That's where you come in. Pantries are expecting even further increases in traffic with the end of supplemental SNAP benefits in March and we're raising enough to ensure that every participating food access site can offer weekly fresh produce to its patrons. Every dollar donated to this campaign will go directly to purchasing vegetables and dairy from farmers in Greene County.

How it works: The Athens Community Farm will take the lead on establishing advance buying contracts with local Gang Greene Alliance farms to purchase fresh, locally-grown produce and dairy in consultation with area pantries. Gleaning organization Long Table Harvest will aggregate and deliver purchased produce on Thursdays, along their distribution route. Each pantry will receive approx 2k in purchased produce during this pilot season, although the total amount will be adjusted based on funds raised. Orders will be placed with participating farms in early 2023 with deliveries beginning in June and running through November.

We will track our ability to raise funds, usage/reception of produce (as reported by pantries) and economic value provided to farms (as reported by farmers). If successful, we’ll continue the program in 2024, increasing funding and community partners.

Community Shares is a collective effort of the Athens Community Farm, Gang Greene Farmer Alliance members, The Lo Farm, Nimble Roots Farm, Stoneberry Farm, End of the Lane Farm, and the Coxsackie Food Pantry, the Athens Community Food Pantry, the Catskill Food Pantry, along with the Long Table Harvest gleaning organization.

For more information, please email athenscommunityfarm@gmail.com.