Hello Friends of Taproot,
These last few months have provided some very gratifying developments for our community kitchen, and the potential for more infrastructure growth and increasing financial security is quite promising as we come into 2022.
Taproot's accomplishments include:
***Building a fully functioning walk in refrigerator serving Taproot users, the San Juan Islands Food Hub, and of late (due to ferry disruptions) also serving as a drop off point for Lopez restaurants' produce coming from the mainland.
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***Receiving the gift of a walk in freezer from the San Juan Islands Food Hub through a USDA grant. This freezer is already on its way to Lopez.
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***Being awarded a WSDA Rural Business Development grant to fund a back up generator for the walk in refrigerator and the soon-to-be-installed walk in freezer.
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***Finalizing the design of our cook room, which will allow for many more types of kitchen users and projects.
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***Establishing of a New Business Mentoring Program to help dreamers, entrepreneurs, and other aspiring business owners to design, manage, and succeed at producing and marketing products that leverage use of our community's agricultural resources. Joan Egan has assembled a diverse and very competent array of mentors to assist with all aspects of business start ups to encourage local economic engagement and growth.
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***Participating in the San Juan Islands' Farm Tours, which gave us the opportunity to show Lopezians and others exactly what Taproot is now and is working toward in the near future. We were assisted by the Lopez Locavores who demonstrated use of our fruit processing equipment and food dehydrator.
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***Just announced! Taproot has been awarded a USDA Local Foods Promotion Program grant over 3 years to fund, among other things, hiring of a kitchen manager, stipends and other assistance for participants in our new mentoring program, hiring for a community outreach program, and the purchase of equipment ranging from a dishwasher to larger scale processing items like a vertical cutter/mixer, a bottle filler and capper, and a labeler. Unfortunately, the cook room project is not eligible for this funding.
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***Creating a community resource for economic and food security through ongoing involvement in the development work for a 'Food Center' on Lopez, bringing together the synergistic efforts of Taproot Kitchen, Lopez Food Share, San Juan Islands' Food Hub, and the Lopez Locavores.
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***Partnering with LIFRC (the Family Resource Center) in pursuit of a new USDA grant which will fund the purchase of a freeze dryer, vacuum packer, and other equipment that will allow Taproot to start a food preservation education program for kitchen users.
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As the year comes to a close, we are reviewing our finances and readying our cook room plan to be brought to the county for permitting. We hope our friends and advocates will consider continuing to support Taproot with a donation of any size.
A very generous single donation by a long term advocate got us started toward building the cook room but we will need to match it with $100k to accomplish the entire build out.
We also need to raise funds for the balance of our grant matches, although much of our matching comes from generous in-kind donations of time, labor and expertise.
You can donate by check, credit card or PayPal.
Click HERE to donate.
You can donate time, labor and expertise by contacting us.
The Taproot Board has worked diligently for six years now to establish a Lopez community kitchen, and notwithstanding the numerous challenges and setbacks, we have been buoyed and inspired by the response and contributions of our community. We are now on the brink of accomplishing much of what we set out to do and more.
Your help is invaluable in this process, whether it be financial or in the form of labor, consultation, promotion, endorsement, or just enthusiasm for a project that aims to provide an empowering resource for the sustained well-being of the people of Lopez and the larger San Juan Islands community.
With gratitude, and with best wishes to all of you,
The Taproot Board
~ Jean, Joan, Lissa & Randall
P.S. See our News Page for more details.
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