Gift of Gobble 2018 Now Accepting Nominations and Donations

It’s that time again – Gift of Gobble time.

Every year, Bounty for Families (formerly the Yelm Cooperative) feeds 100 local families at Thanksgiving through community support.

The families represent an authentic cross-section of Yelm: 25 are from JBLM, 27 are from 9 local churches, 6 are from two school districts – Yelm and Rainier – and the remainder are individuals nominated by the community.

Through this unique program dreamt up nine years ago by one local woman, those who may be struggling this holiday season but don’t qualify for social services can maintain their privacy and dignity.

They simply pick up all the fixings for a Thanksgiving feast, including a turkey, potatoes, vegetables, and even pumpkin pie fillings on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Anyone can nominate a family by filling out a form at the Yelm Food Co-op or Nominate a family online and one of our volunteers will contact them and provide details of where and when.

Gift of Gobble relies entirely on community support.  All donations are tax deductible and go directly to supporting people right here in our neighborhoods. Just $60 feeds a family of six! Click here to donate and make a difference for our community. Thank you for your support and Happy Holidays!

Give now using the form below!

Kids are a big part of the Yelm Farmers Market

OK, we’ll let the parents come, too!

But, each year at the the Yelm Farmers Market we are so pleased to see the number of kids who come out to learn more about food and farmers and buy good things to eat or to just look around.

In 2018, we plan on plenty of activities to keep kids happy and learning each time they come to the market. In past years, we’ve had face painting  days, pumpkin bowling days and of course our Power of Produce Kids Club

kids at YFM

This year in our new location at the Yelm Community Center on the Yelm City Park, kids can also get to the park playground easily and spend time looking around the new Community Garden which will be right next door.

The Yelm Farmers Market is a place for families and we hope to see you all there!

Thank You Sponsors!

A big thank you to our Farmers Market sponsors thus far: Yelm Family Medicine, Yelm Farm & Pet, Blue Waters Acupuncture Center Studio 703 Wraps and Crowe Law Office. The City of Yelm has also been incredibly supportive of both the market and our new Community Gardens project which will be getting off the ground (or into the ground) later this year.

We’re excited to begin this market season on Saturday, May 26th at our new home in the Yelm Community Center. Some of our booths will be indoors and others will be in the surrounding area at the Yelm City Park. Now that we’re in the heart of town, we’re anticipating a lot of traffic not only from our loyal repeat customers but from those who have recently moved here as well as local residents who will now have greater access to the market.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available from the $250 level all the way to the $5,000 Market Sponsor level. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you get your brand in front of hundreds of market shoppers every weekend for 23 weeks – all in association with fresh, local, organic produce and other unique products and crafts.

Contact Jon Jamison at manager@yelmfarmersmarket.com .

Yelm’s First Community Garden

Bounty for Families presents the Yelm Community Garden program!

The first one will be located in the Yelm City Park by the Community Center – look for groundbreaking soon!

The garden will not just be your everyday garden either. The borders will be living! Imagine a “fence” made out of living plants that can be harvested.

Between the parking lot and the garden will be apple and cherry trees growing horizontally so that they make a border low enough the fruit can be picked by your kids! The short ends of the garden will have borders of red and green grapes and the border between the garden and the city park will be annuals.

In the garden, you’ll have the chance to help plant, help maintain and help harvest more fruits, vegetables and flowers!

The sketch below is of the basic layout of the garden.

yelm community garden

 

First planting is planned for March 2018 and will continue as needed.

We want the community involved – this is your garden – and you can do that with your time, or your building expertise and/or donations of materials, plants and even cash!

 

 

Nisqually Indian Tribe sponsors Power of Produce 2018

power of produce

Once more, the Nisqually Indian Tribe (http://www.nisqually-nsn.gov/) has shown their commitment to supporting Yelm community activities by sponsoring our Power of Produce Kids Club  (http://bountyforfamilies.org/our-programs/power-of-produce-kids-club/) for another year.

The 2018 sponsorship of $6,000 should fund the program throughout the entire market season this year!

The Power of Produce Kids Club introduces children to fruit, vegetables, and the farmers who grow them while developing financial literacy skills (and perhaps a bit of patience).

The free club is open to children ages 5 to 12. Once they’ve enrolled, they’re given a badge and a small shopping bag and each week when they register, they receive two dollars of market tokens that they can spend on fruit or vegetables or a plant that grows food.

Since the Club was begun at the Yelm Farmers Market (yelmfarmersmarket.com) nearly 1,600 children have enrolled and made over 4,000 visits to the market. Each time they come, we hope, they learn a bit more about our food supply and how valuable our farmers are.

Make sure you enroll your kids again this year at our new location in the Yelm Community Center at 301 2nd Ave in Yelm.

Yelm Farmers Market Committee formed

yelm farmers market

In November 2017, Yelm Farmers Market vendors met with members of the BFF Board proposing the establishment of a market committee. This committee would be made up of vendors, other interested parties and members of the BFF Board.

On Dec 5th, a visioning session is being held to create the blueprint for how the market will operate in 2018, how the committee will operate and the role of the BFF Board.

Vendors include:
Jessica Reed of Reed’s Sweet Wine
Karla Broschinski and Thomas Mani of Bee 4 Ever
Austin and Jon Jamieson of J&A Reclaimed
Lucas Howe and Annie Paturka of Root Cellar
Mari Mankamyer and Tim Mann of Mari’s Farm
Susie Kyle of Yummy Local Foods
other members are:
Terra Kram, a community member
Tom Dewell of Bounty for Families Board
Chris Black of Bounty for Families Board

Assisting us will be Mary DeMatteo, the Regional Lead of the Washington State Farmers Market Association (WSFMA) who is responsible for Thurston County among others.

Discussions are focused on the management of the market for 2018. Should this continue to be a market manager managed market? Should it be a vendor operation market? Should it be some combination of the two?

This process is a reinventing one to make sure that the Yelm Farmers Market is a strong viable community presence for a long time to come!

Yelm Farmers Market Vendor Meeting change

farmers marketCalling all Yelm Farmers Market Vendors!

We are considering changing the meeting scheduled for Sunday, Nov 12th to a Thursday evening later in the month.

This meeting is an important one since we want to set up the YFM Committee so work can begin for 2018.

This message is also posted on the Yelm Farmers Market Facebook page – please reply there if a Thursday evening is good for you. You will also be receiving an email today and you can reply to that as well.

Hope to see as many of you as possible this month!

Tom Dewell
Board Chair
Bounty for Families

 

 

 

 

Power of Produce 2017 – Another Success!

 

power of produce

This year again, the Bounty for Families Power of Produce Club, held at the Yelm Farmers Market, was a great success.

443 kids were enrolled this year, just down from 485 last year, to make the grand total since the program began in 2015 1,587 kids! And they come back over and over again during the season so that our total so far is 4,059 visits. That’s over 4,000 times that young people, aged 5-12, were at the market interacting with local farmers and growers, learning about food and healthy choices and taking home veggie starts for their own home gardens. What an education these kids get!

There is, however, one challenge with this program: it has to be fully sponsored or receive grant money or donations since the $2’s worth of tokens given to the vendors must be reimbursed by the market. This year, unfortunately, we had to stop the program mid-August since the funds we had ran out.

So for this program to continue educating our young people, some of your sons and daughters, we need your support. In 2018 we will make it very easy to help. Our website has a way for you to donate either one time or on a recurring basis. It’s so easy to set up a monthly contribution of $10 or $25 to this really outstanding program by going to http://bountyforfamilies.org/our-programs/power-of-produce-kids-club/ and clicking the “support your BFF’ button on the right hand side. Rather use your mobile device? Just text BFF at 91999.

Your donation can make a huge difference – support the Power of Produce Kids Club at the Yelm Farmers Market in 2018.

Thanks!

Gift of Gobble 2017: Now Accepting Nominations and Donations

Let the nominations (and donations) begin! Gift of Gobble 2017 is officially launched. Now in its eighth year, this program will provide 100 families with entire Thanksgiving feasts that they can prepare and enjoy at home.

To nominate a family, stop by the Yelm Food Cooperative and fill out a nomination form. Be sure to include contact information for the family so that we can reach them in time and please note that nominations will be closed as of Friday, November 17th. One change this year: to maintain the spirit and integrity of why this program was originally created, we are asking all nominators to write a short paragraph describing the family they are nominating and the need they have at this time. A space to do so is included on the back of the nomination forms.

Want to help? Here are two options:

  1. Donate. Just $60.00 will feed a family of six. Drop by the store and contribute today! You can also donate directly on our website HERE.
  2. Volunteer to raise funds. Our goal is to raise $6,000 by closing time on Friday, November 17th. Help us achieve that goal by joining our business outreach team. Contact Heidi Smith at heidi@classycopy.com to learn more.

Thank you for making the holiday season brighter for our community!