Harvest Festival

We are holding our first ever Harvest Festival at the Five Loaves Farm on Saturday, November 5 from 4:00-6:00 pm. We want to celebrate all that has happened here on the farm this past year. We will be serving soup and salad made from some of our own produce. And like our Chill and Chow last spring, we are going to have a bit of competition. We are asking that you consider baking a pie to enter in our best pie contest. And of course there will be prizes! And because everyone will get a chance to sample the pies, everyone will be a winner! It’s a family event with face painting, gunny sack races, apple bobbing, and more. We will also have a silent auction, so bring those checkbooks! You never know what you might find. We ask that people pay $5 per person to help offset the cost of the evening (no more than $25 per family). All proceeds go toward the continued operation of the Five Loaves Farm. Please RSVP so we can prepare enough food for everyone. Pass this invite along to anyone you feel might be interested in some good ol' fashion farm harvest fun!

Santa Barbara A Rocha Fall Newsletter 2011

It’s harvest time! We have had a tremendous summer on the Five Loaves Farm. Farmer Emiko and our cadre of interns and volunteers have harvested over 6 tons of organic produce since May. These healthy veggies are distributed to approximately 500 people each week including hospice patients, migrant workers, elderly poor, homeless men and women, and single moms and their children. What an honor to be a part of blessing some of the neediest in our community. Thank you for your part.


As you can see, we also have a new video that introduces the work of Santa Barbara A Rocha. Our hope is that this will better educate the community as to what we are about. Check it out. Please share this with your friends, coworkers, church groups,… whomever you think might benefit from knowing a bit more about A Rocha.

We are holding our first ever Harvest Festival at the Five Loaves Farm on Saturday, November 5 from 4:00-6:00 pm. We want to celebrate all that has happened here on the farm this past year. We will be serving soup and salad made from some of our own produce. And like our Chill and Chow last spring, we are going to have a bit of competition. We are asking that you consider baking a pie to enter in our best pie contest. And of course there will be prizes! And because everyone will get a chance to sample the pies, everyone will be a winner! It’s a family event with face painting, gunny sack races, apple bobbing, and more. We will also have a silent auction, so bring those checkbooks! You never know what you might find. We ask that people pay $5 per person to help offset the cost of the evening (no more than $25 per family). All proceeds go toward the continued operation of the Five Loaves Farm. Please RSVP so we can prepare enough food for everyone.

The farm is seen as a place of restoration both for the land and the people it touches. It seems that every week we get requests from groups that would like to visit, serve at, retreat to, learn, or receive produce from Santa Barbara A Rocha. We have had visits from sustainable agriculture advocates, foodies, college student groups, and homeless advocates. As my wife is quick to point out, there is no shortage of work. Pray with us that God would provide the energy, people, and funding necessary to meet the needs of our community. Thank you again for your continued support of our work.

We continue to search for a more sustainable financial future (don’t we all!). We had a few more individuals join us after our last newsletter; maybe more of you would like to join us and help bring a healthier future to the neediest in our community.

I look forward to seeing you all at our Harvest Festival on November 5. Please feel free to drop either Emiko or me a message. We love to hear from you. And please come by and visit. We continue to have Monday evening volunteer times from 5:00-7:00 pm. It’s a pretty serene place to watch the sun go down while the colors change on the mountains behind us. And you get the added benefit of knowing that what you are doing is helping restore lives.

Paz,
Marty Robertson

P.S. If you happen to be in town this coming Monday, October 3, come join us for a potluck dinner in celebration of Emiko’s birthday. Bring something to eat and come on down to the farm during our regular volunteer time between 5:00-7:00. We need to celebrate Emiko!