Shared Harvest Update: Week of June 15

Contents in This Report

1. Coming Up
2. Volunteer Opportunities.
3. Last Week
4. Adopt a Tomato
5. What do volunteers do at the Farmer's Market


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1. Coming Up: This Week And Next:
Tuesday:
Task Force Meeting at Kindt Phillips Friedman & Fremgen 7:30 AM;
Christine Anne garden program

Wednesday:
Salvation Army will collect donated produce from downtown.
Christine Anne garden program

Saturday:
City Hall Farmer's Market
Southwest Rotary will staff the Oshkosh Farmer's Market. (Volunteers Needed)
50 Orphan Tomatoes with no place to grow will be looking for foster families.

Sawyer St. Farmer’s Market (Cerebral Palsy of Mideast Wisconsin Pickup)

Sunday:
Cecil Streeter will collect donated produce from the Sawyer St. Farmer’s market
(open Sunday and Saturday 11-4)
Christine Anne garden program

2. Volunteer Opportunities:

Tuesday: Festival Food Farmer's Market volunteers: Two shifts: 8 to 10:30 and 10:15 to 1 PM Tuesdays July 14 to October 15.

Saturday: Oshkosh Farmer's Market at City Hall volunteers: Two Shifts 8 to 10:30 and 10:15 to 1 PM Tuesdays July 14 to October 15.

Saturday: Oshkosh Area Food Pantry needs volunteers on Saturday morning.

Saturday: Sawyer Street Farmer's Market: Volunteer needed to pick up donated produce on Saturdays about 3:30 to 4 PM.

Any day: Potters needed to start pots of orphan vegetables and herbs for farmer's markets. 50 to 100 starts needed each week.

Food Pantries and Meal programs: current list of locations and hours is attached.

Schiek's Kolpein Street Farm: Starting in mid-July Rotary and the Oshkosh Community Pantry will collect from produce farmers on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

3. Last Week: Donations and Networking – Thank You Vendors and Other Donors

Tuesday
Festival Foods Farmer's Market - not open (starts July 14).

Wednesday,
Downtown Farmer's Market - Salvation Army collected lettuce and other greens/

Wednesday,
The Northwestern ran an article on Adopt a Tomato on Wednesday, June 17. Thank you Americorp volunteers for writing a press release and getting it published.

Thursday,
Lil Hansche, Lori Loken, Maureen Muldoon and Ken Friedman planted the herb garden with the help of a resident and her son.

Saturday
City Hall Farmer's Market - Jeff Pots, David Hayford & Ken Friedman helped 75 families adopt tomatoes and collected 158 pounds of produce. Our traveling tomatoes will be giving donations to pantries in Shawano, WI and Westerville, IL. Total to date: 253 pounds. Bob Fried of the Landscape Company at 708 Nicolet (behind the laundry on Bowen) donated a tray of onions and HOT peppers


Sunday,
Sawyer Street Market - Curt Reese (Mastergardener) collected produce on Sunday

All Week: Oshkosh Area Community Pantry: Has facilitated more than 125 adoptions of tomatoes and peppers. Peppers are popular


4. Adopt A Tomato

Jeff Potts (and Mandy, Southwest Rotary, David Hayford (Downtown Rotary, Sue Panek (Downtown Rotary, United Way Director), Maureen Muldoon (Winnebago County Master Gardener, UW Prof of Geology), and Ken Friedman (Southwest Rotary, Attorney with Kindt Phillips Friedman & Fremgen) and the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry have helped over 300 families adopt tomatoes for their gardens. Almost all were from Oshkosh, but traveling tomatoes found homes in Marinette and Shawano and in Westerville and Westmont, Illinois. This was great fun. We have contact information for over 140 of our tomato foster families

We got lots of positive feedback and encouraged lots of gardeners with big, full gardens to donate when their crops are ready. We talked with a couple of dozen families with young children who were eager to adopt a tomato plant. (Each of them was told that the tomatoes had an birthday every Saturday. They were instructed to say happy birthday to their tomato each week and to give it some coffee grounds or a tea bag or a piece of banana peel and lots of water for their birthday gifts.

The Northwestern ran an article on Adopt a Tomato on Wednesday, June 17. Thank you Americorp volunteers for writing a press release and getting it published.

As we near the end of the Adopt a Tomato project, we want to make sure we thank. Judy Richey of Oshkosh Family and Steve Vickman of the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry who each independently creating the idea. Thank you Pat Menke, Nick Schneider and Hannah, and the North High School Horticulture students for providing the tomatoes and peppers. Thank you, all of the volunteers from Rotary, mastergardener volunteers and Americorp volunteers from the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry and my wife, Sue, for potting tomatoes, helping set up and take down the booth and encouraging dontations.

What's next: We can't say for sure, but keep tuned: Shared Harvest will be promoting produce adoptions of some kind each week.


5. What do Volunteers Do at Farmer's Markets?

Specific Instructions for each market will be at the booth and/or emailed to volunteers. Volunteers introduce themselves to all of the vendors at the farmer's market and hand out our brochure and plastic bags (while they last). Volunteers collect produce from individual and from vendors at the end of the market. Volunteers give introduce themselves to vendors, shake their hand and say "Thank you." After the market. take the donations to the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry on Jackson Street who will coordinate donations to all pantries in the area. Volunteers must also dismantle the booth and return the tent, sign, etc. to the food pantry or to Ken Friedman's office at 141 N. Sawyer St.


Thank you everybody. Remember to volunteer to help at the downtown market and (later this summer) at Festival Foods. And call me if you have questions.