2024 CFLT Annual Report and Information about our 2025 Annual Meeting and PotluckVote for CFLT Board Candidates today, 2024 CFLT Fundraising Events, and More!
The community has spoken and we are excited to bring back our legendary potluck for our Annual Meeting this year! Join the board and staff of the Community Farm Land Trust and enjoy amazing food in the company of others who are passionate about our community's farmers, farmlands, and food system.
Our Annual Meetings are informal, drop-in gatherings of our Community Farm Land Trust membership and friends. Bring a dish to share for our ‘farm and foodie’ potluck. Share food at our table and meet some of our Board members, staff and volunteers, and farmer members. Please come celebrate and build community with us.
Agenda for the Annual Meeting
4:30-5:30pm-Socializing, Networking Opportunities to connect
with farm to market programs and other resources
5:30-6:30pm- Potluck
6:30-7:30pm-Program
Welcome & Invitation to engage with CFLT
Updates about CFLT farmland preservation efforts
Introduction to regional farm to market programs and other resources
7:30-8:30pm- Live music dancing, more socializing and
networking opportunities
Other activities at our annual meeting will include:
Networking farm to market opportunities will include Southwest Washington Food Hub, South Sound Fresh, Washington State Dept of Agriculture's Regional Markets & Farm to School programs
Resource sharing including Thurston Conservation District
Opportunities to connect with elected officials
Our board election
Opportunities to offer feedback for our strategic planning
2025 Fresh from the Farm Guides, hot off the press
Keep reading below for the 2024 Annual Report and Online Election of Board of Directors for 2025!
Community Election of the CFLT Board of Directors
Because we are a Community Farm Land Trust, our Board of Directors, both new and continuing, are elected annually by the membership. If you are a supporter, you are a member.
VOTE FOR BOARD CANDIDATES
Please vote to approve or disapprove this slate of board candidates below.
2025 SLATE OF CANDIDATES
New Board Member or Board Members Up for Renewal of 3 year Terms
Rachel Friedman (renewal)
Joe Shorin
Tina Wagner
Kati Thompson
Mackenzie McCall
Andrew Moiseff
CONTINUING ON THE BOARD
Colin Barricklow –(3rd year of a 3-year term)
Toby Schofield – (2nd year
of a 3-year term)
For more information, on our new board members, keep reading below!
Each year, the Annual Report gives us the opportunity to reflect back and see how we continue to accomplish the mission and vision of the Community Farm Land Trust. This Annual Report will give a snapshot of some of the important accomplishments in 2024 of which we are very proud. We continue to promote local food and farming systems through preservation strategies, outreach and partnerships.
We’re Growing!
Thanks to a few generous donors, CFLT hired a part-time Capacity Building Contractor for 2024-2025. We were fortunate to be able to persuade Rebeca Potasnik to join our team. She brings many years of experience in community development and non-profit work. Thanks to her efforts, our Board is now eight members strong and continues to grow. She has helped us make solid connections/partnerships in the community and has been really great at organizing successful Land Trust events.
Building Our Board-Introducing our Newest Board Members
Mackenzie McCall-There is an urgent need for preserving farmland before we lose it to development. I have been invested for a long time in helping local farms thrive, as a farmer and an advocate. I would love to contribute to the important work CFLT is doing to preserve farmland in our region.
Andrew Moiseff-I care about where our food comes from, how it is grown, and the people that do the hard but good work of growing it. Farmland is decreasing with consequences for our local food system and habitats. It is important to me to try and preserve farmland for generations to come.
Joe Shorin-I am passionate about local, sustainably produced food. I love to cook and to nourish my family with meals derived from farm-fresh produce and products. I want to strengthen the community's connection to our local farms, so that their bounty is widespread, and their operations are more sustainable.
Kati Thompson-I am passionate about growing, preparing, and preserving crops, especially in sustainable, synergistic, and organic ways. As a person who was self-employed for over a decade and who currently operates a tiny plant nursery type business, I would love to be involved in helping others pursue those passions.
Tina Wagner-As the climate changes, human populations grow, and costs for everything increase, our collective capacity to grow enough healthy food in ways the enhance rather than hurt the environment becomes paramount. I am passionate about preserving farmland, helping new farmers gain access to farmland, and bridging the gap between generations.
Growing Our Community
Community Land Trusts: Creating an Affordable, Equitable Future
A well-attended community event, February 7, 2024, presented by CFLT and Thurston Housing Land Trust (THLT) and sponsored by the Community Sustaining Fund, was held in the WA Center for the Performing Arts Black Box. A panel from both Land Trusts explained the uniqueness of the Community Land Trust model and how it creates permanently affordable ownership for farmland or for housing. This same event was also given to the residents at Panorama last year.
Presentations to the Evergreen State College
This year was a busy one, as part of our growing outreach, Rachel Friedman, Chair, presented to Evergreen’s class entitled Food is Medicine: Food Policy and Public Health. Rachel also presented to Evergreen’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and Transformational Changes (CELTC) as the first of a three-part series. You can watch her CELTC presentation by clicking the button. The students were very engaged and posed thoughtful and challenging questions.
CFLT’s annual Farm Guide has become our most successful community-building, community-supported project. The Guide connects our region’s farmers to the local consuming public. The 2024 edition listed 111 farmers. Local sponsors, especially Puget Sound Energy, covered farmers’ listing fees. In addition, the community support from 24 other sponsors and 55 advertisers made it possible for CFLT to print 14,000 copies and distribute them free of charge to 245 sites across the four counties of Thurston, Lewis, Mason and Grays Harbor Counties.
Be a LOCALvore with CFLT
Each year in the Spring, CFLT actively partners with Olympia businesses to promote a local shop-dine-drink out day. The Land Trust has an obvious interest in supporting the local economy. LOCALvore also increases awareness of CFLT and farmland preservation among a public less likely to know of our work. In 2024, May 8th was LOCALvore Day. Twenty local businesses participated. We promoted them in our newsletters and social media feeds. In turn, each business featured our posters and promotional materials in their venues and donated a portion of the day’s sales to CFLT.
Partnering with Slow Food Greater Olympia
CFLT shares a common mission with Slow Food to make food more sustainable and more accessible. In the past year, CFLT has co-sponsored two extraordinarily successful potluck meetings for our memberships and the larger community.
2024 Farms Forever
Farms Forever is CFLT’s major annual fundraiser. The year 2024 brought some big changes. We moved to a larger venue at Squaxin Island Tribe’s Little Creek Casino and Resort and gained the Tribe’s gracious and professional hospitality. Their superb kitchen staff was delighted to build an elaborate dinner for 130 people, using the 600lbs of food donated by our local farms. Matt Smith, an experienced MC and Auctioneer, assisted by our own Rebeca Postasnik, set a light, fast paced tone to the whole evening. When it was all over, CFLT had netted $45,000, more than double our usual return. Only those who have put on a successful fundraising event know how much work it takes. CFLT is so fortunate to have three experienced staffers - Jeanine Toth, Natalie Martzolf, Carol Linnebur - who organized the entire event from conceptualization to clean up, and ran trouble shooting the whole evening. Our own nonprofit heros!
Urban Future’s FarmFest
Each August on Olympia’s eastside, Urban Futures Farm (UFF) hosts a three-day celebration of music and community. UFF partners with CFLT for FarmFest and donates a percentage of ticket sales for farmland preservation.
Thurston Conservation District’s Harvest Fair
For a number of years, CFLT has been a regular exhibitor at Harvest Fair, a well attended community event for the whole family. On Oct 5th, a pleasant fall Saturday, three Board Members took turns staffing our CFLT table, sharing concerns for farmland preservation with more than 500 attendees.
Lewis County Farm Bureau Farm Tour
In August, three CFLT’s Board Members joined the Lewis County Farm Bureau (LCFB) on their annual farm bus tour. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, US Representative whose district includes Lewis County and parts of Thurston, also joined the tour. The trip demonstrated LCFB’s serious concerns for the viability of their local farms, both big and small. The clear overlap of our missions resulted in LCFB sponsoring the listing costs for 20 new Lewis County farms in CFLT’s 2025 Farm Guide.
Preserving Farmland
Over the past year, CFLT worked on its biggest preservation project yet: an agricultural conservation easement for a 100 acre, grass-based livestock farm bordering Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM). A coalition consisting of Thurston Conservation District (TCD), CFLT, Capitol Land Trust, the WA Conservation Commission and JBLM, formed a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The Coalition, with TCD as lead, submitted a proposal in June to the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) titled “Protecting Working Lands and Upland Habitat in the JBLM Sentinel Landscape”. The proposal, among other things, would fund CFLT to purchase the agricultural easement of the 100 acre farm. It would also provide matching and acquisition costs. The uncertainty of federal funding has put the project on hold. It is the Coalition’s intent to resubmit the proposal for the next NRCS funding cycle.
Meanwhile, we have had requests from two additional landowners wanting to work with us to preserve their farms. We hope to work with them in 2025. And lastly, we fielded many inquiries over the past year from farmers and land owners interested in learning about how to preserve farmland.
2024 Financial Report
2024 Income
Membership / Donations:
$55,665
Grants-$41,000
Fresh from the
Farm Guide-$37,842
Events-$62,585
Other - $24,108
$8,512 (structure rent)
$10,025 (land rent)
$121 (interest earned)
Notes
2024 Grants: Nisqually, Squaxin, and others
Excluded: Interest and Investment Income
2024 Expenses
Programs-$144,153
Professional
Services-$36,680
Administration- $2,488
Misc.- $13,729
$8,563 (taxes & insurance)
$3,760 (office rent)
$1,406 (technology)
Notes
Programs: Includes fundraising & property tax
Professional Services: Includes employee admin time
Administration:Printing Costs for Farm Guide included
Misc:Office Rent: Included rental expense from storage unit
Come Grow with Us!
Join the CFLT Board of Directors
The Board is currently seeking new members to help in our work. It is essential for us to have a board with many talents that represents the diversity of our community. You can learn more about volunteering on our website or you can speak to any Board member.
Look for the 2025 Fresh from the Farm Guide coming soon to a town and a business near you. We will be distributing guides in our four county region over the next few months! Check out your favorite local spots to see where you can pick up your guide. If you would like copies of the guide at your business or want to help with distribution, please contact us at FFTFG.
2025 CFLT Fundraising Events
Save the Dates!
LOCALvore - Wednesday, May 7th
Farms Forever-Saturday, Aug 16th
We are seeking local businesses to partner with us for 2025 LOCALvore. Businesses are asked to donate a portion of their sales for the day. Parameters of these donations are set by each business. (ie. 10% of sales, 10% of food sales, $1 per drink, etc). Contact Jeanine if your business would like to participate this year.
