By Rachel Kriegsman, CFSA Development Coordinator | Monday, Feb. 4, 2019 –
CFSA kicked off 2019 with a bang! Several times each year, Whole Foods Market chooses a local non-profit or educational organization to receive 5% of daily sales. On January 10, CFSA was chosen to receive 5% of daily net sales from all North Carolina and South Carolina stores.
As part of 5% Day, our staff hit the road—from Charleston to Asheville—and shared how CFSA is strengthening our local food system by talking with customers and employees at all 20 Whole Foods locations in North and South Carolina. We caught up with members, aspiring farmers, friends, and customers and had a wonderful time scouting out products offered by CFSA farmer-members in those very stores.
This first 5% Day of 2019 generated the largest 5% donation that Whole Foods has made to a single organization in the Carolinas—$67,149.
This is a HUGE deal for an organization like CFSA! To illustrate how huge this is for us, here are few examples of what these dollars equate to:
- $62 makes it possible for us to provide a day of training to the Farmers-In- Training at our education and research farm in Concord, NC.
- $83 helps us run workshops to engage farmers to become advocates for issues that are important to the success of their business.
- $450 helps us provide more two-day Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) consultation visits to help sustainable farmers get their products into stores like Whole Foods.
As an organization that’s accustom to stretching every dollar, we are thrilled by how we can leverage this gift from Whole Foods to multiply the work we do across the Carolinas with hundreds of additional farmers. This historic gift not only helps make our work possible but helps us provide critical assistance (the RESEED Recovery Fund) to farmers who are rebuilding following Hurricanes Florence and Michael; train more farmers to succeed in growing sustainably; and engage consumers in creating a vibrant regional food system.
CFSA staff (Elizabeth Read, Roland McReynolds, & Rachel Kriegsman) accept the donation from Whole Foods.
To all those who came out to support us with your shopping carts, we thank you!
We are also so grateful to Whole Foods for their partnership in supporting farmers, farmworkers, and consumers across the Carolinas.
Questions?
Drop Rachel an email or give her a call, (919) 542-2402.