🧡 Giving the gift of nourishment!

We are super excited to share some great news about our GiftBox program! If you haven’t heard about the GiftBox program yet, every week, we give away fresh, organic produce to our low income/unemployed neighbors and their families in our community. We currently have 120 people on our program participant list who expressed their need for fresh produce, something that they cannot easily find at the local food banks. We have people with autoimmune or genetic diseases, those who has to follow a vegan diet, or those who are waiting for their EBT or social security income, all of whom are seeking access to healthy, fresh and whole foods. 

This program has been around on and off since 2020. As of July 2023, we have been working on revamping it, making it financially sustainable and also expanding it. Prema Farm has been our continuing and faithful vegetable donor since day one. As you can imagine, in winter time the veggie donations we receive get either very small or none existent. Since October 2023, RMM has stepped in and used its tiny non-profit budget to subsidize and keep the program going even with 1 GiftBox per week at times. 

On some weeks, when we receive more GiftBox requests than we are able to offer, we are having to turn down several requests, sometimes as many as 6-8 people. We see the need and the demand, but we are not able to fulfill it due to our restricted budget. Our efforts at this point are to increase the weekly GiftBox offers to a point where we hopefully don’t need to turn down anyone. Continuing community support is crucial to make important and valuable programs like our GiftBox program viable. 

With this intention, a few weeks ago,  we reached out to Great Basin Community Food Coop to seek support for our program. They not only  listened to our needs wholeheartedly, but also expressed immediate interest in supporting us. We are extremely happy and excited to share that GBCFC management has decided to sponsor our GiftBox program with a recurring donation which will allow us to prepare 16 GiftBoxes per month for at least 12 months and perhaps beyond. This means RMM will be able to provide GiftBoxes to 4 individuals/families every week. We are grateful for this gift which will allow us to keep serving our community. 

We also started a community fundraising campaign to increase our weekly offer even more. If you are able and would like to sponsor a GiftBox (or more!) with a one-time or a recurring donation, you can do so here or by clicking the button below. You can choose any amount you would like and even the smallest amounts are helpful to expand our program. It is important for you to know that 100% of donated funds pay for the cost of the food, not for overhead expenses, so we get the most food possible into the hands and bellies that deserve it. 

And last but not least, if you know anyone who can benefit from our GiftBox program please guide them to sign up by filling out a simple form on this page. There is no approval process. Anyone who expresses a need is welcome to join.