April fundraiser for food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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Dear Friend

Thanks to GMO/Toxin Free USA supporters, we donated $1,000 which bought 400 pounds of clean food for those in need in Butte County, California. In April, our staff decided that we would donate money raised from our monthly affiliate revenues to provide clean, organic food to people affected during the pandemic. The affiliate checks have now come in and we rounded the donation up to $1,000. THANK YOU to everyone that was in a position to be able to make purchases in April.
 
Where did the money go? Since all of the well-known national nonprofits working to get food to the needy could not guarantee that our supporters’ money would only go towards purchasing organic, non-GMO food, we looked to local organizations. We decided on Butte County Local Food Network in California, a 501(c)3 public interest nonprofit dedicated to providing locally and organically grown food to the needy, founded by Pamm Larry, someone we know well and trust.
 
A message to our supporters from Pamm Larry, who also serves on the Board of Directors of GMO/Toxin Free USA:
 

Butte County is a rural county in Northern California. On November 8, 2018, we woke up to alerts about a fire in the mountain communities. It spread rapidly through the mountains, burning the size of a football field every second. Within a few hours the Camp Fire had ravaged the land, including the communities of Pulga, Concow, Paradise and Magalia. Eighty-seven people were dead, over 55,000 people became homeless and a community in crisis emerged.

Almost two years later, very few have been able to rebuild. Many of the smaller, more remote communities are just now getting electricity. The food they get via the usual food bank and agency channels is all packaged, most of it expired. A shopping excursion to town takes at least half a day, making it expensive and difficult for their already devastated, surreal lives.

Many folks had just started to see a glimmer of movement forward earlier this year, but then got slammed, again, with the COVID crisis. Many lost their new jobs, so many rebuilding projects paused on hold until we know more.

In April, The Butte County Local Food Network was approached by someone from The Burn Scar (what we call the area burned) to see if we could get fresh food up to Concow (the area close to where the fire started) as they have been "the forgotten ones" in relief efforts.

Our organization's mission is to create a strong local food system in our county and region. We agreed to bring food grown by our local farmers up to them. We started on April 15 and go twice a week, after our farmers markets. We have, to date, gotten 2902 pounds and 648 bunches of food raised with organic standards (some of the fruit were not fully organic, but were "no sprays") to 70-90 people twice each week.

This food is changing the nutrient profile for a community in PTSD and full on crisis. Your donation will help us continue to bring healthy, locally grown food to kids and their families in a situation anyone could find themselves in now or in the future. We so appreciate GMO Free USA and YOU for making this possible.

 

Pamm Larry
Initial Instigator and Chief Rabble Rouser

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GMO Free USA
PO Box 458  | Unionville, Connecticut 06085
(347) 921-1466 | info@gmofreeusa.org

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