By Colleen Robinson, board member
Together, we are making great strides toward a community-owned resource offering affordable housing, urban agriculture, and green-space/wetland protection. Thank you for your part in this effort.
Today, we urge you to invest five minutes to contact your elected officials (Alder, Mayor, etc) and directly request their public support for this project.
Find your City of Madison Alder | Find your Dane County Supervisor
Below is some optional language you are welcome to use, however, it would be most effective to include a sentence or two about why you personally support this project
Dear Alder/Supervisor:
I urge you to publicly support the Save the Farm project, acknowledge its potential benefits, and vote on any resolutions or policies within your jurisdiction that help serve the success of this project’s progress, mission, and core values.
As of today, the Save the Farm project has gained the support of nearly 500 individual community members, more than $23,000 in GoFundMe donations, and over $1,000,000 in pledges toward a potential investment cooperative to purchase the Voit Farm and carry out the mission of Save the Farm.
We also have:
1) The support of local organizations such as 350 Madison Climate Action Team, Friends of Starkweather Creek, EVP Coffee, and Groundswell,2) Interest from Dane County and City of Madison staff, and
3) Vendors who are willing to contribute their expertise to the project planning as a donation or at greatly reduced rates because they believe in its core values.
Even if we could write a check today and secure a land purchase contract to acquire Voit Farm, this project would still need (and want) political support to be a reality. The project concept fulfills or helps fulfill affordable housing and climate goals already laid out by the City of Madison. It helps fulfill stormwater, water quality, and floodwater mitigation goals declared by the County. And it serves the entire community in many ways, while deliberately focusing on building equity and opportunity for BIPOC, economically marginalized individuals, and small business owners.
At the root of Save the Farm for me is that this project acknowledges we are all connected. People, place, and context, and every element has value and contributes to the whole. Until we collectively acknowledge the environment, history, diversity, and interactions we all depend on every single day, and appropriately honor these in return with gratitude, none of us will live a fully secure and joyful life. We are only as strong as the sum of our parts and this project celebrates all the parts.
Colleen Robinson