Celebrating 15 Years of Growth in Albany County!

This year, Feeding Laramie Valley proudly marks its 15th anniversary, celebrating a decade and a half of dedication to fostering food security and promoting sustainable agriculture in our community. Since our inception, we have tirelessly worked to ensure that every member of the Laramie Valley has access to healthy, locally-grown food. Our journey has been one of growth, resilience, and community spirit, driven by passionate volunteers, generous donors, and steadfast supporters. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for your support of our vital mission.

Over the past 15 years, we have cultivated community gardens, provided educational programs, and distributed fresh produce to our communities. Our commitment to equality, empowerment, and environmental stewardship remains unwavering as we continue to build a more nourished and vibrant Laramie Valley.

Join us in celebrating this milestone as we look forward to many more years of sowing seeds of hope and harvesting the fruits of our collective efforts. As we gear up for our most productive season of the year, every following newsletter edition for the remainder of the year will feature highlights of our growth, revisiting past milestones as we continue to expand our programs in record-breaking ways. Here's to a future where everyone has a place at the table!

We welcome your donations to help us continue to grow through the next 15 years:

Kids Out to Lunch 2024

Our popular Kids Out to Lunch program is returning! Join us all summer long for free and healthy meals and activities at beautiful LaBonte Park. The program is completely free for children ages 0-17 and does not require previous registration. Adults are welcome to join in a meal with their children with a suggested donation of $1.50.

Kids Out to Lunch began in 2016, and has only expanded in scope and operation since. The program began offering meals 3 days a week and has since expanded to every weekday serving a growing number of participants.

Our 2024 team is headed by Chef Suzan Izzo with assistant chefs and activity facilitators, Hays Bruce and Ani Briere. The team is very excited to continue this important program for the summer, providing delicious, healthy meals and engaging activities.

Field Notes: How You Can Prepare A Garden Bed

At 7,200 feet, a Laramie Spring brings a mix of snow, rain, sun, and everything in between. Our Shares team has been diligently preparing for the growing season since March. We've been planting seeds, prepping beds, collecting, turning, and spreading compost, all while planning for an exciting 2024 growing season.

This year, our Shares Production spaces and methods are evolving, with a focus on better soil management, season extension, innovative growing practices, and produce varieties suited to our high desert and arid climate.

A significant part of our approach involves working closely with the land through a method known as polyculture. This involves growing two or more crops that thrive together, planted closely and intensively, instead of the traditional monocropping style that focuses on a single crop. This method has allowed us to trial a wide range of new varieties and plant more crops in a smaller space, utilizing the symbiotic relationships between plants. For example, we plant turnips and spinach together in the same bed; aphids are attracted to the turnip tops, leaving our spinach unharmed. This intensive planting strategy optimizes the limited space we have.

One major advantage of our smaller, more intensively planted growing space is the ability to use predominantly hand-held tools for maintenance, preparation, and harvesting. When prepping our in-ground growing spaces, we use a broadfork to gently aerate and cultivate the soil.. The broadfork allows us to loosen the soil structure just enough to add air and break up compaction, helping plant roots grow, water penetrate, and aerobic microbes thrive without significant disturbance on the soil structure and are a less expensive alternative to a rototiller.

After this manual no-till process, we lay a 2-3 inch layer of compost and aged manure on our beds. This provides an a rich and natural fertilizer to boost our plants as soon as they go into the ground. We then shape our beds using a hoe or garden rake to smooth out any clumps, remove large debris or rocks, and prepare the surface for seeding and transplanting.

For more information about gardening at high elevation or bed preparation using these methods, email us at shares@feedinglaramievalley.org or stop by our office at 968 N. 9th Street!

Field Notes seeks to be a regular educational component of our newsletter and we are very excited to bring this feature to the community. In the future, topics range from specific information about high-altitude varieties that work well in our climate, the benefits of reducing the use of pesticides, to techniques on weed deterrents and season extension. If you have feedback, are interested in a topic, or have suggestions please feel free to contact us at guillermo@feedinglaramievalley.org

Mobile Market Goes Back On The Road

Our Mobile Market returns this summer, with the team eager for a new season on the road!

The program is excited to present a new regular schedule outlined below, with fresh selections of high-quality vegetables, baking items, spices, grains and proteins. We soon hope to improve the Mobile Market with a new air conditioner, a wider selection of local produce, and potentially fresh meat from local ranchers.

We are very excited to announce that our Mobile Market program is now able to accept SNAP payments!

SNAP helps stretch limited budgets, allowing families to afford healthy meals. Increased acceptance of SNAP at various locations, such as the Downtown Laramie Farmer's Market, improves accessibility and supports overall well-being and economic stability for our community.

Attention Laramie Gardeners!

Have open garden space and want to donate your grown produce to the local community? Consider volunteering with Grow A Row! We encourage anyone interested to contact us. We offer a Gardening Manual for beginning and expert gardeners in growing food in Albany County located here.