Help Us Grow CFLT's Fresh from the Farm Guide

Help us Grow our Guide. Support the Expansion of the Fresh from the Farm Guide!

This year, the Community Farm Land Trust (CFLT) is excited to raise funds to expand our Fresh from the Farm Guide in these key ways: by increasing its distribution and the number of pages along with the amount of information it can provide. The Guide is central to CFLT’s mission of educating our community about the farmers who produce our local food and how to access it. Our comprehensive format serves as an extensive food resource for consumers, demonstrating the significance of supporting local farms and regional food systems. 

Since 2018, we’ve transformed the guide from a 20-page newspaper into the 80-page magazine it is now. Thanks to our dedicated staff, we’ve continually expanded farm listings, added more informative articles, enlarged our food assistance section, and so much more!

In the past year, we increased our farm listings from 97 to 111, thanks to support from Puget Sound Energy. This year we’ve again joined forces with PSE along with the Lewis County Farm Bureau. We’re excited to offer an additional 21 farmers free listings in our guide for a total of 132 free listings. Last year’s growth revealed challenges with page space in our layout and design. Last year’s growth revealed increasing challenges with page space in our layout and design. This demonstrated a pressing need for more pages, as relevant content had to be cut to fit the new listings.

This 12% increase in farm listings has limited our ability to include essential educational content, such as food access information, agricultural statistics, articles, and our seasonality guide. While advertisements and sponsorships help keep the Guide free to the public, they do not cover the cost of increasing space and content. That’s why we’re asking for your financial support to help us grow the Guide and the valuable information you rely on.

As the Fresh from the Farm Guide gains recognition, demand for distribution is rising. Since 2019, we’ve seen a 53% increase in distribution points. Through our strengthened partnerships with regional food banks and the Timberland Library network, we achieved a remarkable 25% increase in distribution over the past year, enabling us to connect with more rural communities across our four-county region. This is especially crucial as we witnessed firsthand during the pandemic how food banks serve as lifelines for food-insecure families. Our Guide educates low-income consumers to maximize their nutritional assistance by utilizing programs like Snap-Market Match and connecting them directly with regional farms that accept EBT/WIC payments.

Our goal is to ensure that more Guides reach the people who need them most. Your donation will directly support the expansion of our Fresh from the Farm Guide, allowing us to increase both the number of pages and the quantity of Guides distributed—while preserving the beloved content and farm listings you value. Your contribution will help us extend this essential resource to more marginalized communities and individuals living further from urban centers.

Here’s how your contributions make a difference:

• $2,500 helps us add 8 pages to the 2025 Fresh from the Farm Guide.

• $3,200 enables us to print and distribute an additional 1,000 copies.

• $3,700 allows for 2,000 more copies to be printed and distributed.

• $5,000 supports all of the above and helps us adjust for rising production costs due to inflation.

Your financial support is crucial in showcasing our region's abundance of local farms and ensuring everyone has access to this valuable free resource. Together, we can foster a healthier, more informed community.

Thank you for considering a donation to help us grow!

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