February 2021 newsletter

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Sitka Local Foods Network
http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork
408 Marine Street, Suite D
Sitka, Alaska 99835
sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com
Board of directors — Charles Bingham, president/communications director; Amanda Anjum, treasurer; Laura Schmidt, St. Peter's Fellowship Farm lead gardener (honorary board member); Nalani James, Sitka Farmers Market co-manager; Ariane Martin Goudeau, Sitka Farmers Market co-manager; we have space for you on our board.

Food business contest entries open

Do you have the next great idea for a food business or product from Sitka? Do you grow food, harvest fish, or cook food in Sitka? The fourth annual Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest has launched, and entries are due by Friday, March 5.

This contest is for Sitka-based businesses that are making food products (preferably local). We have one $1,500 prize for an established business and one $1,500 prize for a start-up (two years or younger). There is a $25 entry fee, and entrants need to fill out an entry form that provides info about how you plan to incorporate local foods, how you plan to improve employment in Sitka, how commercial is your business idea, and how your business fills a need in Sitka. For more details, click this link.

Pick.Click.Give. open until March

Friday, Jan. 1, is when Alaskans can begin filing for their Permanent Fund Dividends. When you file for your PFD, you can share the wealth through Pick.Click.Give. with 611 participating nonprofits around Alaska, including 20 that operate in Sitka. The Sitka Local Foods Network is participating in the Pick.Click.Give. again in 2021, and we'd love your support.

Your donation to the Sitka Local Foods Network helps us grow fresh local produce at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm, which we sell at the Sitka Farmers Market, where we match SNAP and WIC benefits to make local produce more available to low-income Sitkans. It also helps us teach gardening classes in the spring, and spark entrepreneurship with the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest.

You can file for your PFDs from Jan. 1 through March 31, and the Pick.Click.Give. charitable giving program comes up at the end of the application. If you forget to make a PCG donation when you initially file your PFD application, you can go back online and update your PCG donations through Aug. 31, so long as your PFD application was submitted before March 31. For more details, click this link.

Like local food? Join our board of directors

Did you enjoy the fresh local veggies at the Sitka Farmers Market this summer? Did you take one of our garden education classes this spring? Do you have an interest in getting more access to locally grown, harvested and produced food, and an interest in food security? If so, please consider joining our board of directors. We need new board members to keep offering these programs, and we'd love to have you join us. We need board members to keep things going, especially since we may be losing a couple to military relocation. If we don't find new board members, we may have to scale back our programs.

For more details, please click this link. This page has links to our board job descriptions and applications. Our next meeting will be from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10. Due to COVID-19 coronavirus health concerns and the need to social-distance, we will meet using Zoom online meetings (email us at the address below for a meeting link). Feel free to check us out. Our meetings are open to the public. For details and a meeting link, contact SLFN board president Charles Bingham at 623-7660 or sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.

2021 sponsorship program opens

The 2021 Sitka Local Foods Network sponsorship program is open, and businesses and individuals are encouraged to contribute to help us keep our programs going and fulfill our mission of increasing the amount of locally harvested and produced foods in the diets of Southeast Alaskans. Your donations help us host the Sitka Farmers Market, grow food at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm (we just ordered a new high tunnel in December 2020 so we can grow more produce for the markets), provide garden education classes in the spring, and sponsor the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest. Food security is a tenuous thing in Sitka, and we're trying to do our part to improve our community food security.

We thank the Alaska Comprehensive Cancer Control Partnership, the Sitka White Elephant Shop (White E), the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), Harry Race/White's Inc., ALPS Federal Credit Union, Sitka True Value, Sea Mart and Market Center for renewing their sponsorships for 2020, and we added First National Bank Alaska and Sweet Sisters Caramels. We also thank The Alaska Community Foundation, the Sitka Legacy Foundation, The Skaggs Foundation, David and Margaret Steward, Linda Schmidt, Amanda Anjum, Charles Bingham, and our other individual donors for their support. To learn more about our sponsorship program, click this link.

Copyright © 2015-21, Sitka Local Foods Network, All rights reserved.

You are receiving this email because you joined our listserv or gave us your email at one of our events. We thank you for your support of local foods in Sitka and Southeast Alaska. We do not share our email lists with other groups.

Our mailing address is:
Sitka Local Foods Network
408 Marine Street, Suite D
Sitka, Alaska 99835

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Sitka Local Foods Network · 408 Marine Drive, Suite D · Sitka, AK 99835 · USA