A Word from the Director

Hi, my name is Jayme, and I want to help save the world. How? I have been blessed with two gifts: I grow delicious food and I organize groups of individuals with similar goals. I founded an organization called Farmscape Solutions, a 501(c)3. We help people grow food to feed themselves and their communities. We also help communities build upon historical roots using locally grown food, local culture and local commerce.

Being born and bred in Alabama, I’ve watched as our communities suffer from significantly high rates of illnesses. We all know someone with diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, or autism. This is unacceptable. Change needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast. Regardless of who gets elected, the state of our food system will be slow to improve, if we wait on someone else to fix it. Now is the time to work together to repair our damaged food system, and create a sustainable regenerative food system for our communities that is safe to eat and sovereign.

Farmscape Solutions works with small family farms that want to grow food without carcinogens. They want to grow a lot of food, so much food that they can supply their local communities with their tasty health-giving harvest. They want to supply the grocery stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals, and they want to grow for you and your family.

Food is more than something we shove down our gullets the recommended 3 times a day. It can be a spiritual endeavor, from the nurturing of the seed, to the harvest and preparation. And the harvest festivals! Times when communities come together to celebrate their life-sustaining harvest and good tidings of their family and neighbors with food, music and dance.

A farmer’s got to eat! And, sometimes they like to eat something that they don’t grow. We help farmers and consumers connect through mutual markets, generating local economic development, and providing a superior product without the added costs of transporting food from far corners of the country and the globe. The idea is to keep our hard earned cash in our own communities, and getting healthy food, and festivals to boot!

Currently, we are focused on Alabama’s food sheds. We are working with groups of farmers, community organizations, businesses, local governments and individuals to create a model for this approach.

Here’s some of our current projects:

· Abundant Life:

Vision. We co-create wellness and transform rural communities through promoting habits that lead to a higher quality of life for all.

Mission. We build collaborative, cross-cultural relationships, providing spaces for listening, trusted conversations that inspire actions toward individual and communal health.

Purpose. Our work addresses the needs of unsustainable food relationships and limited access to health care by engaging the problems of malnutrition,chronic illness, and educational gaps.

Ways to Give: Individual membership $50 | Family membership $100 | Church, Community, and Corporate memberships - Please contact Anna Camphouse - anna@farmscapesolutions.com or 1-855-327-6722 ext 200

You may also give by using the PayPal button below and indicating Abundant Life in the memo or notes field. Thank you!

· Beginning Farmer Technical Assistance Program: We are working with beginning farmers and farmer cooperatives all across Alabama to create stability and opportunity in our communities.

· Alabama Small Farm Stakeholder Group: We are organizing and facilitating Stakeholder Meetings for interested individuals, organizations, businesses, agencies and institutions that support local food systems. These meetings lead to community networking to support local economic growth through healthy fresh produce and products.

· Town of Loachapoka Revitalization: We are working with the Town of Loachapoka to revitalize their business district using the “food, culture and commerce” approach. Building on their community roots embedded in local history (Loachapoka is home to the Lee County Historical Society and the legendary Fred’s Feed, Seed and Pickin’ Parlor), the town is ready to engage their multi-cultural community to improve quality of life by investing in teaching their towns folks how to grow food, providing a Community Commercial Kitchen to preserve foods and prepare “value-added” products, that can be sold at the local farmer’s market. A portion of the farmer’s market fare will be prepared for a monthly Farm to Table Meal and Music event. Surplus produce and prepared meals will be delivered to the elderly in the community through the local churches.

We need your help to continue to assist Alabama communities in growing their local economies through local foods.

How will we spend the money raised?

· Transportation

Farm consultations have us on the road quite a bit, and the ’99 Saturn has its limitations. For one, we can’t fit farm supplies in the car to deliver on farm visits. The ’93 Dodge is great for hauling supplies, but isn’t good for passengers. DS Diesel Services in Chickasaw, Alabama has graciously offered to donate a large portion of the cost of an ’04 Dodge 2500 (Cummins 5.9) with a crew cab. We will use about half of the money to cover the costs associated with the new vehicle (cost, tag, title, and insurance).

· Office and Laboratory

We have a wonderful little office space and large laboratory space in Notasulga, Alabama. Up until now, XEEL Corp, a materials testing laboratory, donated space and utilities to our organization in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, we are obligated to pay our fair share for rent and utilities. (I suppose this is a good time to mention that we will expand our operations to include some laboratory-based research to promote ecologically sound farming practices when the time is right). These costs add up to about $12,000 annually.

So there you have it. That’s where we’re at, and that’s why I ask you to support our endeavor. Please CONTRIBUTE what you can today below. Any amount is appreciated. All donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Be a part of the change we seek, and contribute to the growth of Alabama’s Local Food Systems. Share this with people who care. Thank You!!!

Warm Regards

Jayme M. Oates

Director