Dust and Mulch - Volunteers

The day after our bunny fencing adventure with the Westmont basketball team we hosted a group of volunteers from Santa Barbara Community Church’s high school group. The farm is located on the property owned by SBCC so of course they know what is going on and want to help out when they can. This Saturday found us mulching the road leading into the farm. The road gets really rutted during the winter rains and the mulch helps minimize the damage. The mulch also helps keep down the dust which blows into the field when cars drive up and down the road. Dust clogs the pours of the plants and hinders the pollinators from doing their job. So, we spread a lot of mulch this day. In addition, I put Sam in charge of a small crew to clean up and re-mulch the trail from the church parking lot down to the farm. They did a fantastic job. Nice leadership Sam; you deserved the hammock time at the end of the day. Thank you Benji and Erik for organizing this day and all the youth and mentors who worked with us.

Basketball, Bunnies, and Botany

What do these three have in common? On Friday October 14, 2011, the Westmont College basketball team came to the Five Loaves Farm to kick off their team retreat by doing a little work with us. Over the course of about three hours they installed 780 feet of bunny fencing and cut the beginnings of our botany trail. The trail is in need of some more permanent maintenance and these guys put some sweat into it! The bunnies that live on our native hillside love the farm, especially the tender young plants when their own habitat is so dry and brown. It is just like the cartoons; really do eat carrots. The fence has successfully kept the bunnies out ever since. Hallelujah! We ended the evening with pizza. There is only one creature that eats more than the bunnies that used to get into our fields, and that would be a hungry basketball player! Thank you coach John Moore for organizing this, coach Jeff Azain for showing the guys how to sweat, and to the entire team for helping out.

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!

Santa Barbara A Rocha July Newsletter

Summer is upon us in the best of ways. The farm is ramping up for our next big harvest with pretty much the entire area planted out. Did you know that in May the Five Loaves Farm produced over 2,500 lbs. of veggies that were distributed to the poor of Santa Barbara? We are the only reliable source of high quality organic produce distributed freely to the needy of our community. This produce is used by groups feeding poor families, homeless men and women, hospice patients, and the elderly poor. In addition we have just completed three weeks of Creation Care Camps. More than 60 kids participated in the camps with numerous volunteers, helpers, and parents in tow. We also have three interns working and learning with us this summer. To learn more about any of these activities just click on the title of any of the following articles.

Five Loaves Farm’s Unique Niche

Creation Care Camp

Interns ~ Summer 2011

In addition I want to let you all know where we currently stand financially. About six weeks ago I was really discouraged about the future of Santa Barbara A Rocha. Emiko and I have stretched the budget this year to get us through about December, but after that there is no future funding promised to keep the farm going. After one particularly discouraging morning my eyes were opened to the reality of the unique niche that the A Rocha and the Five Loaves Farm play. As I mentioned in the first paragraph of this letter, the produce from the Five Loaves Farm is the only reliable source of quality produce available to the poor of our community. Later that same day and over the next couple of days four different organizations that work with the poor in our area thanked us for the food needs we are fulfilling with others requesting to be a part of the food distribution. It is awesome to know that we are filling a real need and the side benefits of it all are the relationships that are being built. It is about forming genuine, restorative community relationships that translate into appropriate care and action for the people who receive the food, those who distribute it to those in need, the leaders and volunteers of the conservation groups we work with, the families who come to our camp and school programs, the volunteers and interns who work along side us, and the land itself. Our hope is that we are a “cup of cool water” to all who are touched by our work.

But what does this have to do with finances? After December the farm will cease to operate without an increase in financial support. It costs us about $60,000 a year to operate the farm. Some of you are already monthly givers. Maybe you could encourage someone you know to join you in supporting the Five Loaves Farm. For the rest of you, won’t you consider joining us by giving what you can on a monthly basis? Click here to be directed to the ARUSA website where you can set up your donation and designate it for Santa Barbara A Rocha.

Despite the insecure nature of our financial future, we have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of work that we’re excited to do. We’ll keep you posted on upcoming developments and events. Don’t hesitate to drop us a line; we’d love to hear from you. Thank you for your support.


Paz,

Marty Robertson
Director, Santa Barbara A Rocha