Wal-Mart Foundation

State Giving Program

Growing Healthy
Communities

Sharing the Harvest Community Farm

Grant Application 2017
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

ABSTRACT 2

PROBLEM AND NEED STATEMENT 3

METHODS FOR EVALUATION OF SUCCESS 5

METHODS COMPONENT 5
EVALUATION COMPONENT 7

SUSTAINABILITY 9

BUDGET AND BUDGET NARRATIVE 10

BUDGET 10
BUDGET NARRATIVE 11

ORGANIZATION AND STAFF QUALIFICATIONS 13

APPENDIX MATERIALS 15

POTENTIAL FUNDERS 15
BOARD OF DIRECTORS 16
IRS DETERMINATION LETTER 21
IRS 990 FORM 25

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Abstract

Sharing the Harvest Community Farm is a program of the Dartmouth YMCA with the mission of
eliminating hunger at the local level. Since 2006, Sharing the Harvest has provided 368,867
pounds (or 2.3 million servings) of fresh, local, healthy produce to 18 hunger agencies. Sharing
the Harvest serves Bristol and Plymouth counties where 1 in 3 children live in a family unable to
meet their basic food needs. To continue making food accessible for families in need Sharing
the Harvest requests a general support grant in the amount of $40,000 from the Wal-Mart State
Giving program. Like the Wal-Mart Foundation, Sharing the Harvest is creating opportunities
for people to live better lives by providing hunger relief and accessibility to healthy foods for
our local communities.

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Problem and Need Statement

According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015, 42.2 million people in the
United States were living with food insecurity. That translates to about 1 in 7 people in the
United States living with food insecurity.

Sharing the Harvest Community Farm in Dartmouth, Massachusetts is well aware of these
statistics and the prevalence of similar problems in Southeastern Massachusetts. Our
organization services both Plymouth and Bristol County, which includes New Bedford and Fall
Rivercommunities with food insecurity levels at 21.6 % and 23.2 % respectively. These
communities have even higher childhood poverty rates at 31.1 % in New Bedford and 36 % in
Fall River, and it is clear that there is a significant need for basic nutritional services in these
areas. According to a study conducted by Project Bread in 2014, 1 in 3 children in
Southeastern Massachusetts live in a family unable to meet their basic needs for food.
However, nearly 50% of food-insecure children in the region are ineligible for federal nutrition
assistance because of federal funding limitations. Those families instead rely on local hunger
associations to help sustain themselves and their children.

Feeding America, the nations largest domestic hunger relief organization, found that the
average food insecure family skips up to 100 meals a month and 84 % of those families
reported purchasing the cheapest food available, even if it wasnt the healthiest option. High
levels of food insecurity and poverty are correlated with obesity because families have to
choose the cheapest food, which often times is processed and packed with refined sugars.
The Oxford Journal published a study in 2015 on socioeconomic disparities in diet quality. The
study found that the discrepancies in diet quality might be explained by the higher cost of
healthy diets and concluded that identifying food patterns that are nutrient rich, affordable,
and appealing should be a priority to fight social inequalities in nutrition and health. Other
studies from the Journal of Nutrition link childhood food insecurity with higher developmental
consequences, which is due to poor-quality food and less physical activity than their food
secure peers. The CDC lists limited access to healthy affordable foods as a contributing
factor to childhood obesity. According to 2010 public school data, 17.4 % of children in Fall
River and 19.2% of children in New Bedford were obese. Choosing healthy food is often
difficult or impossible for families that do not have access to healthy and affordable food like
fruits and vegetables, especially in minority or lower-income communities like New Bedford
and Fall River.

Sharing the Harvest Community Farm began in 2006 as a program of the YMCA in Dartmouth,
Massachusetts with the mission of eliminating hunger at the local level. As the gap between
Massachusetts16.5% according to project breadand the national13% according to

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feeding Americafood insecurity rates grow, so does the vision of Sharing the Harvest and the
YMCA. Sharing the Harvest strives to meet three major objectives: alleviate hunger, promote
volunteerism, and teach volunteers about farming and nutrition. To confront the reality of
hunger, Sharing the Harvest has donated over 368,677 pounds of fresh produce to 18 local
hunger agencies in Bristol and Plymouth counties, and has provided 2,305,025 servings to
families in need. Like the Wal-Mart Foundation, Sharing the Harvest is creating opportunities
for people to live better lives by providing hunger relief and accessibility to healthy foods for
our local communities.

To continue making food more accessible for families and to continue to work toward our
vision of creating a civic-minded community that embraces agricultures power to eliminate
hunger, Sharing the Harvest requests a general support grant in the amount of $40,000 from
the Walmart State Giving program to support the farm by helping us purchase daily operational
supplies and fund our staff members. Last year, the total income of donations and grants was
$84,969 and our volunteers worked an impressive 7,384, but our expenses exceeded our
income at $108,429. For our 4-acre farm and 99 chickens to keep producing high quantities of
food, we need an operational grant to help manage the farm and fund another staff member.
With only three full-time staff members and over 2,900 volunteer visits, Sharing the Harvest
needs more staff and volunteers to continue to produce harvest at a high rate. Increasing the
capacity of Sharing the Harvest will directly result in more servings of fresh, organic, and
healthy produce on the tables of Massachusetts families in need.

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Methods for Evaluation of Success
Methods Component

To create reachable and measurable objectives and outcomes, we have deconstructed our
three main organizational goals to create the methods and objectives section. The primary
objectives in 2017-2018 for Sharing the Harvest will employ the methods as outlined below.
These methods have proven successful as they are the same methods we have used to build
the capacity of the farm from just 20 raised beds to 4 acres of farm; from 400 volunteer visits in
2006 to 2,930 visits in 2015.

Providing Food Assistance:

Goal: Alleviate Hunger for children, families, and adults in need of food assistance
throughout the Southcoast of Massachusetts by growing and distributing nutritional food to
food pantries.

Objective: To produce more pounds donated and servings provided of nutritional food to the
greatest amount of food pantries and cities in need.

Method:
Order $9,000 worth of farm supplies necessary for harvesting and growing produce
(seeds, $3,000; fertilizer, $4,000; and potting soil, $2,000).
Hire one part time volunteer coordinator in the amount of $15.00 per hour, (roughly
$29,000 annually) who will conduct outreach to food pantries, funders, and schools,
schedule volunteers to labor in the field throughout the season.
Work with United Way Hunger Commission to pick up produce daily and to distribute
the produce to 18 local food pantries, soup kitchens, and other emergency feeding
programs.

Outcome: 2017-2018, Sharing the Harvest will donate over 100,000 pounds of food to local
hunger associationswhich is an increase of around 8,000 pounds from 2015-2016.

Volunteerism
Goal: Promote volunteerism and an awareness of hunger in our communities, and build our
community through neighbors helping neighbors.

Objective: To increase the number of volunteers at the Sharing the Harvest Farm.

Method:
Pay Part time wages for volunteer coordinator, as stated in the previous method, in the
amount of $15.00 per hour. With taxes, that estimates to about $29,000 annually. By

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 creating a position for another paid staff member, our volunteer coordinators will be
able to commit more time to increasing volunteerism.
Create more opportunities for group volunteer projects.
Build new business and volunteer relationships.
Provide opportunities for current and new volunteers help build capacity through field
preparation, planting, transplanting, harvesting, special events, cultivating, and seeding.

Outcome: Volunteer hours will be increased by 500 hours from 2017-2018.

Education
Goal: Teach volunteers about farming nutrition, nature, and food origination.
Objective: To increase the number of school visits and programs, which are dedicated to
teaching volunteers and community members about farming nutrition, nature, and food
origination.
Method:
Use $2,000 of the general operating budget for transportation costs to bring more
classes on field trips to the farm (in order to support local education we offer free
transportation to and from the farm).
Continue to build an educational garden for students to explore and experiment without
affecting the crop production and to encourage learning-by-doing. The educational
garden includes five garden beds with crops like herbs, sunflowers, heirloom tomatoes,
and Kamo Squash. Students even have the opportunity to be entrepreneurs and see
the plants from the educational garden at the Youth Plant Sale.
We will continue to incorporate the farm scavenger hunt as a field trip addition, which
allows students to walk around the farm and learn about the different features that help
the farm function as a whole.
The Harvest Project is programming developed to bring agriculture to the classroom
and students to the farm. AmeriCorps*VISTA, volunteer coordinator, Emily Secor will
teach classes about the importance of soil and its link to food with interactive activities.
The students then get to apply their studies through hands-on experience at the farm.
Growing Farmers is an enrichment program developed to cultivate an awareness and
appreciation of local agriculture in the natural world. Students get an inside look of what
Farm to Table really means by building their own soil, growing their own sprouts, and
even making their own butter. This after school program provides students a place to
have fun and learn outside.
Transportation funds will help bring students to the farm to participate in our maple
sugar program. Through hands-on learning students will learn about maple sugaring
by participating in the tapping of maple trees, collecting sap, and seeing the process of
sap being boiled down to syrup.

Outcome: Currently we have 28 classes that take field trips out to our farm, and we would like
to add at least 10 more classes to the listfocusing particularly on schools in the New Bedford
and Fall River areas.

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Evaluation Component

The evaluation of our programs and goals will be based on our ability to meet our objectives
and outcomes. Sharing the Harvest has three major areas of focus: food assistance,
volunteerism, and education. We determine our success based on all three areas and are
committed to gathering and collecting data to help ensure we have reached our objectives and
created tangible outcomes. Below is an outline of our measurement techniques and key
performance indicators.

Food Assistance
Objective: To donate 8% more pounds of produce and provide more servings of nutritional
food to the greatest amount of food pantries within Bristol and Plymouth counties.

Outcome: In fiscal year 2017-18, Sharing the Harvest will donate over 100,000 pounds of food
to local hunger associations.

Evaluation: Sharing the Harvest records daily the amount of pounds of produce that is picked-
up and distributed by United Way. We track all of our income and expenses, and tally our
monthly harvest rate for every crop in pounds. Both our Farm Director and Volunteer Leaders
record data, and by tracking the produce in pounds, we are able to better calculate how many
servings we are producing for people in need. In 2015 Sharing the Harvest produced 92,263
pounds, and with this operational grant we aim to produce and donate over 100,000 pounds of
produce.

Volunteerism
Objective: To increase the number of volunteers at the Sharing the Harvest Farm.

Outcome: Volunteer hours will be increased by 500 hours from 2017-2018.

Evaluation: Volunteers are what keep Sharing the Harvest producing such large amounts of
produce. One volunteer working for one hour produces about 12.5 pounds. We value our
volunteers and their dedication to reducing hunger in our community. Every volunteer signs in
and we record the number of hours they work, as well as weight in the produce they harvest. In
2015, our volunteer hours totaled 7,384 and we hope to increase that number by 500 hours in
2017-2018. The success of Sharing the Harvest depends on our volunteers. We give out
quarterly surveys to our volunteers which provides us with qualitative data on the experience of
participants and helps us design our volunteer programs to be both fun and rewarding.

Education

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Objective: To increase the number of school visits and programs, which are dedicated to
teaching volunteers and community members about farming nutrition, nature, and food
origination.

Outcome: Currently we have 28 classes that take field trips out to our farm, and we would like
to add at least 10 more classes to the listfocusing particularly on schools in the New Bedford
and Fall River areas.

Evaluation: To elevate our outreach in education Sharing the Harvest set the goal of adding 10
more classes to our yearly field trip list. By actively engaging students in the community we
hope to encourage learning-by-doing, and cultivate knowledge about agricultural and
sustainable practices. By expanding our field trips, we expand the number of students we are
able to provide educational experiences for. To evaluate our success of our educational
outreach, we record both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitatively we record the
number of schools, classes, and students who visit the farm. Qualitatively we ask the teachers
from each class to fill out an evaluation of the field trip experience both from the view of the
students as well as the educators. We take these evaluations seriously, as the experience of
visitors to our farm directly correlates with the number of visitors or classes we retain.