Green skies ahead

Written by Rebecca Flint Marx
Photographed by Donnelly Marks
Edible Queens
Fall 2010

Excerpt:

When all was said and done, it cost $200,000 to get the Grange up and running. According to Parachini, the farm has some 20 bona fide shareholder, with two or three people making private loans. This is not to mention the support of hundreds of smaller donors from around the country and the world, each planting their own cash seeds in the new farm’s soil.

Even with funding and a roof, Brooklyn Grange wasn’t quite out of the woods. In mid-May, as a small army of volunteers was helping to spread 600 tons of soil across the Standard Motor Products roof, the Department of Buildings showed up. They brought a stop-work order, slapping its founders with a violation for working without a permit. After paying a fine of about $5000, filing architectural plans and securing the necessary permit, the Grange was allowed to proceed with the installation.

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Bhutanese refugees Chuda Zaudam, left, and Iccha Dhungel tend to the winter crops at Feed Denver as part of the required community service under their resettlement agreement.

Digging for donations

By Yesenia Robles
The Denver Post
Sept. 30, 2010

Excerpt:

An organization in Denver that usually dedicates its time to growing gardens spent the past month cultivating donors to help it win a challenge grant.

Feed Denver is one of eight urban-farming organizations nationwide chasing a carrot dangled by Bonterra, an organic winery, and Growing Power, a Milwaukee nonprofit that promotes sustainable urban agriculture.

To win the matching grant, Feed Denver had four weeks to raise $4,000 from 50 donors. Seven days from the end of the competition, Feed Denver is in second place and has raised $1,335 from 16 donors.

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