Funding Campaigns Crop Up

Two new crowdfunding campaigns that are local to the East Hampton area have the potential to expand access to healthy foods for families and children.

The beneficiaries of these new campaigns, coordinated by GoodCircle, an East Hampton company that connects nonprofit organizations and businesses for fund-raising projects, are to be Food Pantry Farm and Project Most.

Men at Work Construction Corp. of Wainscott is teaming up with Food Pantry Farm, a nonprofit based in East Hampton, to set up a new community-supported agricultural operation for people here. The goal is to raise $21,000 from the community at large, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Men at Work, until the campaign ends on April 2.

It is “targeted at working families who want to eat healthier but can’t afford the higher prices of locally sourced organic vegetables,” GoodCircle said in a release.

Food Pantry Farm already supplies produce to local food pantries and operates a farm stand on Long Lane to support its mission, but the aim of this fund-raiser is to directly expand its outreach to up to 25 families with weekly deliveries of fresh produce.

Project Most is an after-school and summer program for children ages 8 to 13 in Springs and East Hampton, with a specific opportunity called the iGrow Summer Learning Program that needs $38,500 to operate this summer. In this program, close to 60 students will spend weekdays in the month of July working with local farmers, chefs, fishermen, and scientists to learn and get experience growing, harvesting, and cooking their own food. The project’s sponsor, Hampton Racquet, will match donations at a rate of nearly two-to-one during the duration of the campaign, which runs through April 5. The proceeds of the fund-raiser will support costs such as supplies, stipends for educators and supervisors, food, and transportation.

More information about these two projects can be found at goodcircle.org.