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confessions of a part time farm educator

 Clare & campers @ Phillies Bridge Farm Project

It's not that easy to transition from farm educator, farmer's market manager, to starting a farm and back and forth and all around again. Each time a marker occurs (making over $500 at a benefit party) or having a market improve (Norris Square) I celebrate inwardly and do a little dance. One thing that stays consistent in the chaos is the love for the children and families I work. They make me laugh, smile, think and try harder. One reason I'm so looking forward to the RIC Conference ( Rooted in Community) in Philadelphia, PA this year is to learn more ways to incorporate food justice language into the work I do. That'll be July 27th - 30th and will be attended by youth from all over the country! 

Saul students working @ Henry Got Crops! CSA

We'll be hosting a field trip and I'm so excited to share our space with others! More about RIC later! 

We are 90% through our Kickstarter campaign. Please donate now if you haven't yet! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/449138945/cloud-9-urban-rooftop-farm.

thanks, Clare

BENEFIT BBQ!

Art by BANKSY

CLOUD 9 BENEFIT BBQ

July 9^th @ 7 pm

Brews, Music & Grilled Food!!

4909 Warrington Ave.

$7 Suggested Donation

Crisis Brings a Community Closer

Rania Campbell-Cobb & Clare Hyre leading a food justice workshop

What do you do when things are falling apart? You either give up and move on or you regroup and come together stronger than before. Last Thursday I got the devastating email that we would no longer be able to use the roof that we had been planning to implement our project on and I felt hopeless. All this work to design, to fundraise, and now ... NO ROOF?

Art by Melanie Widner

Well they say that crisis brings a community closer and I truly believe that. Not only did our team (Rania , Juan and I) not give up, instead we each took up a new role to find a roof and making our project better than ever. We are looking for roofs around the city and have made contacts with a variety of interesting people with amazing options! Of course, it won't be easy to secure a new roof but at least we are now able to choose the roof we want rather than taking our only option.

Other extremely positive outcomes of this month have been - nearly reaching our 50% mark on our kickstarter campaign. 

Now is a great time to donate if you haven't already... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/449138945/cloud-9-urban-rooftop-farm! Any little bit counts and will go towards us building planters and other infrastructure costs!

Also, we have been generously offered support by a film maker, a graphic designer, and a green roofer. We will be adding a video to our Kickstarter campaign shortly with live interviews of the farmers!We will also have a Cloud 9 Urban Rooftop Farm logo!  I'm very excited to have something to represent us and am grateful to those who are able to design it!

Lastly, we have decided that while the Kickstarter campaign is a great way to raise money we 

want to host an event where all our friends can come together to support our project and each others company. We're hosting a benifit BBQ on July 9th from 7pm - through the night with local burgers & veggies, local beer, and live music.  PLEASE COME & BRING YOUR FRIENDS. $7 at the door and $2 for beer. There will also be garden cocktails! 

Thanks again for your support! Support a farm... support a farmer! 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/449138945/cloud-9-urban-rooftop-farm

HERE'S THE LINK TO THE CAMPAIGN AGAIN. DONATE NOW!

creating a network

I've been thinking a lot about sustainable agricultural network and how there is so much work we're all doing independently that could , if shared, really be used to support one another. I believe that COMFOOD is a really good example of this as well as the CityFarmer and Greenhorns websites. PUFN here in Philadelphia is my inside scoop to the lives of other Philadelphia farm projects. What really sparked this though was a project I found on a Kickstarter campaign that is to discover the storm water management potential for urban farms in New York City but whose research will benefit urban farmers around the country. Go to : http://www.cityfarm.info/?s=seeing+green and look up Going Green : The Value of Urban Agriculture. The two men who started this project are fortunate to have successfully reached their goal of $12,000 and I'm totally impressed. Running a Kickstarter campaign is much harder than I ever thought and we're only going for $5,000. I feel like one needs a training manual and some instruction in public speak, self promotion, and extreme determination. Networking skills are key as well.

In my experience networking has manifested itself in unusual ways. For me it mostly happens because I need someone's help so I reach to a friend for support and they pass on a contact to me. Sometimes it just happens because I'm at the right place at the right time talking to someone who works for an organization I'm super interested in. I was amazed on Saturday watching my boss network and shmooze her way around the Hunting Park farmer's market on Saturday... one day I will be that good at talking to and inspiring people.!

Lately networking has brought me beautiful gifts - someone to help me with grant writing, someone to help me with posters and web designs, someone to help me make a video. Thank you for your support since I am currently in a stressful position of taking on full responsibility of this project. I will probably spend the rest of the afternoon on this couch working on grants and researching rooftop farm insurance plans. If you know anything about either please contact me at clarehyre@gmail.com.

KICKSTARTER UPDATE :  Today we reached 25% of our $5,000 goal! HORRAY! WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP TO RAISE THE REST SO MAKE A DONATION TODAY AND CONTACT YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TOO! SUPPORT A FARM, SUPPORT A FARMER