Thank you for your interest in our Special Funds! To make your tax-deductible donation to one of these funds, please fill out our donate form and choose the fund from the campaign drop-down, or mail a check made out to NOFA-VT with the fund name in the memo to PO Box 697, Richmond, VT 05477.
The Farm Share Program provides a season's worth of fresh produce from a local farm for half-price to limited-income households across Vermont. By doing so, the program not only provides greater access to high-quality food, but it also supports the viability of local farms and our agricultural economy and fosters community connections and local resilience through relationship building. The COVID-19 pandemic and economic fallout that has followed has increased food insecurity in Vermont as much as 25% according to UVM Food Systems research, and demand for our Farm Share Program continues to rise.
Your gift to the Farmer Emergency Fund supports organic and NOFA-VT member farmers who have been adversely affected by natural and unnatural disasters, such as those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, crop failure, extreme weather, flooding, fire, barn collapse, and financial hardship. We understand that our farmers are imperative to our local food system, economy, and environment and that they do not always qualify for federal or private assistance programs. The Farmer Emergency Fund provides farmers with the needed cash flow in times of emergency, to help them recover and ultimately become more resilient farmers.
The NOFA-VT Resilience Fund supports work increasing resilience on farms and in local communities. Overwhelming problems like climate chaos, social inequality, and corporate consolidation ask more of us than a “business as usual” mindset. We need to come together and experiment, innovate, and invest in a different way. Luckily, our communities already hold the seeds of ideas, connections, relationships, and visions we need for a thriving future. We now need to invest and water those seeds to help collective efforts, innovative ideas, and partnerships to take root on farms and in our communities – and ultimate flower and fruit into a more resilient system for Vermont. The Resilience Fund is one way NOFA-VT gathers community support for this critical work. While we cannot solve these interconnected problems alone, together we can work together on a community scale and shift from "business as usual" toward a thriving, resilient agricultural future.
Your support of the NOFA-VT Resilience Fund enables us to lay the foundation for a more community-based, climate-resilient, socially just, and economically thriving organic agriculture system. With your help, this fund will support:
This fund allows us to come together to collectively support the future we need. Thank you for your support of a more resilient food future for Vermont, for everyone.
We launched the Jack Lazor Memorial Soil Health Stewards Fund in the spring of 2021 to honor the legacy and wisdom of Jack Lazor, an organic farming leader and the co-founder of Butterworks Farm, who passed away in November 2020. The fund supports annual learning cohorts that promote farmer-to-farmer education in an effort to address both shorter-term soil health improvement strategies, as well as long-term system change and climate resilience.
Farmers can participate in Jack Lazor Memorial Soil Health Stewards for free, allowing livestock and dairy farmers to their knowledge regarding soil health through soil testing, peer-to-peer discussion, on-farm visits, and more.
The Enid Wonnacott Fund was established in 2019 after the passing of NOFA-VT’s beloved Executive Director. Enid Wonnacott led NOFA-VT with grace, humor, and humility for thirty-one years. Enid changed Vermont for the better and created an aspirational model for our country’s organic food movement. What we remember Enid most for, however, is how she brought people together. She cared for people and used food as a tool to build community. Enid spun a web of connection, support, and relationship that wove together into a broad, strong movement. Enid left us far too early, and the Enid Wonnacott Fund assures that her values and legacy are carried forward long into NOFA-VT’s future.
During the first year of the Enid Wonnacott Fund in 2020, funds were used to support our organization through our leadership transition into the next chapter. Funds were also used to support core programs Enid cherished like the mobile pizza oven, which became the “Feeding Those Who Feed Us” project during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The remainder of the funds are stewarded as long-term nourishment of Enid’s memory through the community-building, joyous work that she loved. The fund will support NOFA-VT’s ongoing community-building work to foster vibrant agricultural communities, crucial for thriving agriculture. This fund will support some of our signature programs that Enid lovingly created to bring people together joyfully around food, farming, and nourishing relationships. In keeping with Enid’s visionary leadership, we will also use the fund to capture remarkable opportunities while holding on to the strong underpinnings of NOFA-VT’s work.
We will continue to steward and grow the Enid Wonnacott Fund into the future in honor of her enduring impact. We invite you to join us now to invest in the sustenance of Enid’s vision and values and to be part of our continuing work toward a healthier, wiser world. This is what Enid hoped for, and with you, we will make it happen.
To make a gift to a special fund online, please click "GIVE" and choose the fund from the list of campaigns. Alternatively, you can mail a check made out to NOFA-VT to PO Box 697, Richmond, VT 05477 with the name of the fund in the memo line. Thank you!
