Food
For Everyone Foundation
848
Woodruff Way
Salt
Lake City, Utah 84108
(801) 583-4449 - www.foodforeveryone.org
December 18, 2006
I am so pleased to report
that we have seen excellent progress in three major areas of the Foundation’s
mission this past year – much of it made possible by your participation, for
which we THANK YOU!
First,
it's exciting to see that hundreds of thousands of families from around the
world are discovering the Foundation's gardening training materials on the
internet and are growing incredible gardens – in many cases even producing
highly successful commercial gardens.
Second,
the many years of work on the training materials are coming to fruition. Dr.
Jacob Mittleider's books, CDs and training videos have been improved and
digitized; 6 books, 9 manuals, and 70 training videos are now available
digitally; and all 90 video training sessions will soon be available to the
world as a downloadable Master Gardener-level "virtual" training
system.
And third, our work
in Armenia is beginning to bear fruit, as the gardens we've helped create become
the envy of the communities in which they are located; families are teaching
their neighbors to replicate their successes; and the students we've trained
receive offers to greatly expand the work, even into adjoining countries!
Visitors
to the free gardening materials on the website, the free gardening group, and my
published articles are estimated to total well over 1.4 million people already.
Our ability to help people by means of the internet continues to expand
as we receive invaluable assistance from internet experts in website design and
development, and Search Engine optimization.
We are extremely grateful for contributions of both money and expertise
which we receive in this essential administrative area, which encompasses the
first two areas of major progress mentioned above.
My
wife Araksya and I devote our full-time efforts to the Foundation’s mission as
our “Pay-It-Forward” way of giving back for all we’ve received.
The greatest challenge we face is
in funding the training projects we conduct in impoverished countries, such
as Armenia. This is the area in
which we believe we can make the greatest
direct impact on the lives and well-being of families.
I invite you to consider the things I describe next and, to the extent
possible, participate with us in helping our brothers and sisters around the
world.
Three
years of work under very difficult conditions in
Armenia have given the Foundation a good reputation and a degree of exposure
that make it possible for us to do more than ever before.
For example, our students and participating families report their
vegetable garden production in 2006 was 6 times greater than their traditional
methods, and the Northern Shirak region of the country has been introduced to
the successful growing of warm-weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers,
cucumbers, eggplant, squash, etc.
As
a direct result of these previous successes we
have been asked to conduct a project in the neighboring Republic of Georgia
in the spring of 2007 that will be bigger than anything we’ve ever done
before. We will be training 16
students at a central location; we will grow 90,000+ seedlings in 4 greenhouses
for 994 participants; we will assist our students as they teach and help those
families; and we will train our replacements, so the training facility can
become a permanent agricultural training school.
And because the new project
is only 2 ˝ hours by car from our training facility in Armenia we will be able
to continue and expand our training in that country as well.
The
prospects are very exciting! We
have already secured financial assistance for the larger project in Georgia,
including capital expenditures such as land, multiple greenhouses, and teaching
facilities. Other costs that will
be covered include housing, housekeeper/cook, supervisory staff, seeds,
fertilizers, and students’ food, training materials, and transportation costs.
Only our air and ground transportation are needed, which will
amount to $2,700 for airfare and $5,600
for a used car and gas for 6 months.
The costs of conducting the
2007 gardening training in Armenia, for which we do not have funding yet, will
bless the lives of 250 villagers living in Getk and adjacent villages for many
years. Land, housing, greenhouse,
and garden equipment are already in place.
The project costs still to be funded include:
* Training books and materials in Russian – 250 sets @ $25 -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - $6,250
* Greenhouse covering – 8 mil dual-wall polycarbonate - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2,800
* Project Manager – ten months @ $200 per month - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2,400
* Cook/housekeeper plus food for students & staff – 6
months @ $300 per month - 1,800
* Fertilizers and seedling production materials - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5,500
$18,750
I’ve also included as a
P.S. more detailed explanations of each category of expense for the Georgia and
Armenia projects for 2007, for those of you who care to read it.
Thank you for your interest
in and support of the humanitarian work in which we are engaged!
As always, because the Foundation is a 501©(3) public charitable
organization, any individuals’ donations are fully deductible on your tax
return if you itemize deductions.
Sincerely,
Jim & Araksya Kennard
P.S.
Training materials include the 5 books that have been translated into
Russian – The Mittleider Gardening Course, Let’s Grow Tomatoes, Gardening by
the Foot, 6 Steps to Successful Gardening, and the Garden Doctor 3-volume set.
These sell for $107 here in the USA.
Reliable transportation for
us inside each project and between the projects is required.
In 2004 we rented a car, but spent too much time being stranded and
waiting for repairs. In 2005 we
paid $2,500 for an old Russian car and had similar grief.
That vehicle is now used for the Getk, Armenia training center, and
cannot be counted on for long distance driving such as we need.
A reliable used European car, with gasoline for the 6+ months of the two
projects will cost $5,600.
Because Getk is above
5,000’ elevation and surrounded by glacial mountains, weather is similar to
the Heber valley in Utah. The
greenhouse we used there last year REALLY needs to be fitted with dual-wall
polycarbonate walls and roof, plus a wood-burning stove, in order to make
heating it a reasonable possibility. Last
year we had nights clear into June where the greenhouse plants barely managed to
avoid freezing, even with supplemental electric heaters. We will grow between 25,000 and 30,000 seedlings in Getk.
This will cost $2,800, but will last for 20 years, and pay for itself many times
over.
In order to conduct two
projects in two countries simultaneously we have hired Rafic Karapetyan, a
highly intelligent and excellent worker with whom we worked last year, to be the
full-time manager of the greenhouse and garden in Getk.
His salary, plus transportation costs (gas & oil), for a 12-16 hour
per day commitment for 10 months will total $2,400.
And the final major costs
include a cook, food, and fertilizers for the Getk training center, as well as
the students and participant families. Based
on the requirements last year we expect those costs to be $1,800 for
cook/housekeeper and $5,500 for fertilizers (for the Training Center garden, as
well as for students’ gardens) and seedling production materials.
With $27,050 we will
directly bless the lives of well over a thousand people – this year and for
many years to come – by teaching them how to increase not only the quantity of
their food production, but the quality and variety as well. And several hundred other families in the villages in which
we work will be benefited indirectly, by sharing in the seedlings and produce,
as well as by learning from our participants how to improve their own gardens.
Happy Holidays!
Jim Kennard