Over the past several months, Gather Baltimore added a second truck to their fleet, implemented a regular Sunday farm stand that draws 200 community members in the Oliver neighborhood, hosted 22 volunteer gleaning days at local farms and delivered a total of over 200,000 pounds of healthy produce.
Gather Baltimore hit another milestone milestone this month – not only meeting but exceeding their GiveCorps fundraising goal.
Everyone who donated directly to their GiveCorps campaign, came out to one of the events at Clementine or Maggie’s Farm or gave time gleaning or distributing food at the Sunday Oliver Farm Stand has been a part of eliminating food waste and getting food to those in Baltimore that need it most.
Gather Baltimore is greatly appreciative of the support and ready for the next big step.
In order to further eliminate waste and ensure more local organizations and communities have access to this food, Gather needs to purchase permanent and centralized refrigeration space. Having such resources will enable them to store up to 2-3 times as much food (produce, meat and even seafood) and keep it fresh longer than the trucks are able.
A centralized, refrigerated storage space will allow nonprofit organizations to access the amount of food they need when they need it rather than relying on what we have on the truck and can get them at any point in time. Having the trucks freed up from storage duties, and and having more food on hand will also allow Gather to expand the number of farm stands they can host bringing more food to our city’s food deserts.
So Gather is launching a new GiveCorps campaign to fund this refrigeration and take these next steps as an organization. With your support, Gather Baltimore will build a new dual zoned 16×24′ refrigerated space at Mill Valley General on Sisson Street.
But mostly, your gift will prevent more food from going to waste and put more fresh food in the bellies of Baltimore families in need. Let’s make it happen!
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