Seed Savers Meeting Minutes 4/28
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Community Outreach – Results
We have 12 requests for raised beds and a few people who asked for seeds as a result of the PSA’s that were published. . We have a request from a senior housing center in Lanesboro. They have agreed to pay $75 for setting them up with a bed, which would cover the costs of the materials.
Helen had a phone meeting with NEGEF, New England Grassroots Environmental Fund this morning that went well. H asked them how they felt about us working with communities in Mass. They said that what we do with the money is up to us. They were blown away by how much we have been able to accomplish with the COVID emergency grant so far.
10 people reviewed our pending grant request. The answers to questions that they were going to ask were covered by a letter that Helen sent prior to the phone call.. Helen said that we would probably not have summer camp this year, but that we would try to have lessons for kids who are working from home.
NEGEF is currently getting a lot of money being funneled their way. They said however that there will likely be cutbacks to everybody’s grant applications this year.
They said, “You guys are doing exactly what we want people to do” so it looks good for the grant being awarded.
We are up to 68 people on the email list. If we can get to 80 people that would be 10% of the town.
We want to get the tool shed finished so that we can have a garden library there. Storey Publishing anticipates that they will be seeing a big demand for books on canning etc. this summer.
I (Stephen) talked to Steve Denault about giving me some advice on how to finish the shed, which he agreed to do. We can finish the job without the young carpenter guys that helped us to get it started last fall, if I can clarify the plan for how to proceed.
The accounting is not quite up to date, but It sounds like we can count on getting more grant funding. If we had to we could proceed on credit until the grant monies arrive.
Distributed Beds and seeds
We have about 12 requests for beds. Larry said that he and Mark are cutting wood and should be able to deliver soon. Steve can put the beds together. Helen started another 10 flats of tomatoes. Helen is going tomorrow to pickup more flats for starting seedlings.
We need to make visits to raised bed clients before delivery to make sure that they have a viable location for a garden.
Helen will work on putting together seed orders tomorrow.
Mike Denault is sending a check for $150 to help cover the cost of the community letter.
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Community Garden – Status
School – We planted most of the beds, 10 out of 12, with chard, beets, spinach, brocolli, lettuce and cabbage. We have two more beds to be planted all of the planted beds are currently covered with hoops and remay.
Pam’s – She picked up 5 yards of compost for her garden area We will pay for it @ $40/cy. Chip also delivered some of his composted horse manure to her site.
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Community Compost – update
Helen is on the agenda for the selectboard meeting to discuss stockpiling compost at the transfer station..
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Website –
Chris looked at the website and says that the email sign-up appears to be working fine.
Email contacts from website need to be forwarded to Caroline to be added to the listserve.
Helen has heard from a number of individuals who say that they can’t make the meetings, but they enjoy reading the minutes.
I have added a post to the home page that describes COVID19 project.
Next meeting will be at 6:00 pm on May 5.
Meeting adjourned.
Stamford VT Seed Savers 