The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the April 2024 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.
This month’s newsletter includes short stories about the search for a 2024 Sitka Farmers Market manager, the closing of the 2024 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend application period where you can donate to nonprofits through the Pick.Click.Give. program, an update about how you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network by buying a t-shirt or hoodie from our online store, information about our 2024 sponsorship programs, and an invitation to join our board of directors. Each story has links to our website for more information.
You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).
The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the February 2024 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.
This month’s newsletter includes short stories about the entry deadline for the seventh annual Sika Food Business Innovation Contest, the opening of the 2024 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend application period where you can donate to nonprofits through the Pick.Click.Give. program, an update about how you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network by buying a t-shirt or hoodie from our online store, information about our 2024 sponsorship programs, and an invitation to join our board of directors. Each story has links to our website for more information.
You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).
The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the January 2024 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.
This month’s newsletter includes short stories about the opening of the 2024 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend application period where you can donate to nonprofits through the Pick.Click.Give. program, an update about how you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network by buying a t-shirt or hoodie from our online store, information about our 2024 sponsorship programs, and an invitation to join our board of directors. Each story has links to our website for more information.
You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).
As 2023 draws to a close, many Alaskans already are thinking about applying for their 2024 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend check in January. As usual, Alaskans can share their wealth with a variety of Alaska nonprofits, including the Sitka Local Foods Network, through the PFD’s Pick.Click.Give. program.
For the past several years, the Sitka Local Foods Network has participated in the Pick.Click.Give. program, which allows people to donate in $25 increments to their favorite statewide and local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations when they file their PFD applications from Jan. 1 through March 31.
When you choose to donate part of your PFD to the Sitka Local Foods Network, you support the Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest, education programs about growing and preserving food, the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen, Sitka Community Gardens, matching dollars at the Sitka Farmers Market for SNAP/WIC beneficiaries, the sustainable use of traditional foods, the Sitka Community Food Assessment, the Sitka Food Summit, and a variety of other projects designed to increase access to healthy local foods in Sitka. Starting in 2023, the Sitka Local Foods Network partnered with Transition Sitka on two food security projects — to update the decade-old data in the 2014 Sitka Community Food Assessment Indicators Report and to build a new community garden at the top of Jarvis Street.
In 2023 Alaskans contributed $3.197 million to 641 Alaska nonprofit organizations, and more than $36.3 million has been donated since the program started in 2009. Some Alaskans choose to donate to just one group, while others may spread several donations around to many groups. There now are 614 total 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations participating in Pick.Click.Give. for 2024 (including multi-location nonprofits), including 27 from Sitka. In 2022, Alaskans donated $39,075 to Sitka-based nonprofits (note, total does not include donations to some nonprofits that are based in multiple cities, also final 2023 totals not available).
So how do you make a donation to the Sitka Local Foods Network through the Pick.Click.Give. program? First, starting at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 1, go fill out your Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend application at http://pfd.alaska.gov/. When you get to the section of the application asking if you want to participate in Pick.Click.Give. Charitable Contributions program, click on the PCG link and search for the Sitka Local Foods Network. You also can look for us by using the town search for Sitka.
The Pick.Click.Give. program is available only to people who file their PFD applications online, and not to those who file by mail. Even though you can’t file a new PFD application after March 31, you can go back into your application and update your Pick.Click.Give. donations through Aug. 31 each year.
You still can donate to the Sitka Local Foods Network if you aren’t from Alaska or aren’t eligible for a 2024 PFD. To donate, send your check to the Sitka Local Foods Network, 408-D Marine St., Sitka, Alaska, 99835. You also can donate online by going to our online fundraising page on MightyCause.com, and clicking the Donate button to make an online contribution. In addition, there is an online giving page through the PayPal Giving Fund. If you are trying to make nonprofit donations before the end of the 2023 tax year, you can mail in a check or make an online donation. Please let us know if you need a receipt for tax purposes. For more information about donating, you can send an email to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.
Thank you for supporting our mission of increasing the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of Southeast Alaskans.
The class takes place from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12, in the kitchen at Sitka Lutheran Church (downstairs, use entrance from alley off Harbor Drive, please use street parking and not the back church parking lot). The class cost is $35, which includes supplies. This class is at the former location of the Sitka Kitch.
Students can register and pay at https://bit.ly/SitkaKimchi. For more information, contact Jasmine Shaw at 907-747-9440 or jdshaw2@alaska.edu.
The class takes place from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 21, in the kitchen at Sitka Lutheran Church (downstairs, use entrance from alley off Harbor Drive, please use street parking and not the back church parking lot). The class cost is $30. This class is at the former location of the Sitka Kitch.
Students can register and pay at https://bit.ly/CajunRedBeans. For more information, contact Jasmine Shaw at 907-747-9440 or jdshaw2@alaska.edu.
The Sitka Local Foods Network in recent years created a sponsorship program to help promote our mission, and Sitka businesses and individuals are welcome to join for 2024. The goal of the sponsorship program is to make the projects we undertake (Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, gardening education, food business development, etc.) more sustainable.
“Sitka has a precarious position when it comes to food security, and the Sitka Local Foods Network is trying to improve our community food security through our mission to increase the amount of locally harvested and produced foods in the diets of Southeast Alaskans,” Sitka Local Foods Network president Charles Bingham said. “Sponsors of the Sitka Local Foods Network are working with an organization and a farmers market that places a high value on local food and businesses, fun, premium quality goods and experiences.”
In recent years, the Sitka Local Foods Network has hosted 7-8 Sitka Farmers Markets during the summer (from July to September). Due to COVID-19, we had to greatly scale back our 2020 Sitka Farmers Markets, focusing just on produce sales and using an online sales portal, but we did double our number of market weeks. In 2021, we hosted an outdoor-only market that brought back some of our vendors. In 2022, we returned to our usual venue of the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall after a two-year absence, and we almost had a normal market (with masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and no half-tables to spread out vendors). We had a similar experience in our 2023 markets. We haven’t set our 2024 market dates yet, but we anticipate we will announce them in the spring.
In addition, we grow most of the local produce sold at the markets at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden and a couple of other locations in town. In March 2020 we built a new high tunnel at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, and we were able to add another new high tunnel before the 2021 growing season. These high tunnels allowed us to extend our growing season and helped reduce the impact of our last couple of cold, wet summers. We usually offer a variety of garden education classes in the spring. And one way we ensured fresh, local produce is available to lower-income Sitkans is through our matching program for WIC and SNAP beneficiaries (the first $20 spent on produce at the market), courtesy of recent grants from the Sitka White Elephant Shop and the Sitka Legacy Foundation.
In 2018 we launched the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest to inspire food entrepreneurs in Sitka, and have continued the program with the expectation of hosting it again in 2024 (our 2023 winners were Andrea Fraga of Middle Island Gardens and Michael and Julie Miller of Field to Fire). In 2023-24, the Sitka Local Foods Network is partnering with Transition Sitka on two projects — one to update the 2014 Sitka Community Food Assessment Indicators Report and the other to build a new community garden at the top of Jarvis Street. In addition, we support other local food projects in Sitka, such as the Fish to Schools lunch program and the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen.
There are four levels of sponsorship available, and each has its own set of perks.
Grower ($2,500-plus) — We’ll hang your banner at ANB Hall during the Sitka Farmers Markets, include your logo and company name prominently in our merchandise and advertisements, and thank you on our social media and web pages. If appropriate for the Sitka Farmers Market, you may set up a free promotional booth.
Harvester ($1,000-$2,499) — We’ll hang your banner at ANB Hall during the Sitka Farmers Markets and include your logo and company name in our merchandise and advertisements.
Planter ($250-$999) — Your banner will hang at ANB Hall during the Sitka Farmers Markets.
Friend ($50-$249) — You are listed on our online sponsor page.
We have limited space for banners at the Sitka Farmers Markets, so please contact us before June 1 to guarantee your spot. To learn more about the sponsorship program, click the link below for details and a registration form. For more information, contact Charles Bingham at (907) 623-7660 or by email at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.
2023 Sitka Farmers Market Manager Anastasia Stefanowicz with fresh produce at the Sitka Local Foods Network farm stand
The Sitka Local Foods Network just completed its 16th season of hosting the Sitka Farmers Market. We hope Sitka residents enjoyed the market, and we plan to be back next summer for a 17th season.
Over the last couple of years, we had to make some adjustments as we dealt with this Covid-19 pandemic thing, which meant relocating our market for two years and in one of those years reformatting it to an online-purchase system. The last two years we’ve been able to return to our usual venue, the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall, even though we still had to require masks when we had markets during high-Covid risk weeks.
But we got through it and hope to have a better season next year.
The Sitka Local Foods Network couldn’t host the market without the support of a wide range of sponsors. We have a tiered sponsorship program with four levels — Grower ($2,500-plus), Harvester ($1,000-$2,499), Planter ($250-$999) and Friend ($50-$249). These are local businesses and individuals, and even a few not from Sitka, who are supporting our programs.
Our Grower Level sponsors in 2022 and/or 2023 included the Alaska Cancer Partnership (a program of the Alaska Division of Public Health), The Alaska Community Foundation, and Alaska Food Policy Council.
Our Harvester Level sponsors were the Sitka Salmon Shares/Sitka Seafood Market 1% For The Wild Fund, The Sitka Legacy Foundation, SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), Sitka White Elephant Shop (White E), the GCI Gives Fund, ALPS/Tongass Federal Credit Union, the Alaska Farmers Markets Association, Northrim Bank, David and Margaret Steward, and Joel and Alice Hanson.
Our Planter Level sponsors were Harry Race Pharmacy/White’s Inc., Sea Mart, Market Center, Fish and Family Seafoods, the Sitka Employees of First National Bank Alaska, Sitka True Value/Ace Hardware, Linda Schmidt, Amanda Anjum, Colin McIntosh of Outpost Agriculture, and Charles Bingham.
Our Friend Level sponsors included Beth Short-Rhoads, Patricia Atkinson, Guillermo Espinoza, Ehsan Espinoza, Robb Garni, Jud Kirkness, Catherine Allgood-Mellema, Joe Leghorn, Pat Hanson, Beth Kindig, Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Jaime Zelhuber, Christina Kowalczewski, Traci Gale, Math Trafton, Zoe Trafton, Leah Mason, Moira McBride, Steve Paustian and Mary Beth Nelson, Aubrey Nelson, Kent Barkhau, Deborah Brincefield, and Robin Sherman.
We thank you for your support. We also appreciate everybody who came to one of our markets this summer to support the local businesses selling local food or arts and crafts.
This brings us to our offseason, where we plan and raise funds for 2024. The Sitka Local Foods Network is a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of Southeast Alaskans. In addition to the Sitka Farmers Market, we grow food at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, sponsor the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest, and connect residents to education opportunities for growing, cooking, and preserving local food.
The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the July 2023 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.
This month’s newsletter includes short stories about the opening of the 2023 Sitka Farmers Market season, an upcoming town hall about building new community gardens, an update about how you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network by buying a t-shirt or hoodie from our online store, information about our 2023 sponsorship programs, and an invitation to join our board of directors. Each story has links to our website for more information.
You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).
The Sitka Farmers Market will kick off its 16th summer this Saturday, July 1, when it returns to its roots at Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall, its home for 13 of the 15 summers of markets. The first market of the season is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 1, with six other markets scheduled for the same time on alternate Saturdays, July 15, July 29, Aug. 12, Aug. 26, Sept. 9, and Sept. 23, at ANB Founders Hall (235 Katlian Street).
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic limited our markets in recent years, forcing us to move and change our format, we’re happy to be getting back to some normalcy this year,” Sitka Local Foods Network board president Charles Bingham said. “Our seven markets this year will still have some COVID safety measures, such as encouraging everybody to use face masks if our risk level goes to Moderate or High. But we will have our usual variety of fresh local produce, fish, homemade baked goods, cottage foods, cooked food, arts and crafts, and more. We hope to see you at ANB Founders Hall this summer.”
The Sitka Farmers Market is a community event hosted by the Sitka Local Foods Network, whose mission is to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of Southeast Alaskans. Our focus is on local — fresh produce, fish, baked goods, prepared foods, cottage foods, arts and crafts — and all products must be made in Alaska (preferably in Sitka or Southeast Alaska, cooked foods may use non-local foods so long as the food is cooked on site). Since our mission is geared toward food security and our space is limited this year, if we have too many vendors try to register our food booths will have a higher priority over arts and crafts. We will try to accommodate as many vendors as possible, but some may need to be outdoors.
The Sitka Farmers Market gots its start from the second Sitka Health Summit, held in April 2008, when Sitka residents chose two food-related community wellness projects to work on for the next year — to create a local foods market and to start a community greenhouse. Later in April, St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church made its backyard available for growing produce, which became St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden, and by August the first of three Sitka Farmers Markets was held. Those projects led to the creation of the Sitka Local Foods Network. Since then the Sitka Farmers Market has grown, and is known as one of the top markets in the state.
After having to relocate for two years due to COVID-19, we returned to ANB Founders Hall last summer. We will have indoor and outdoor spaces, inside ANB Founders Hall and outside in the Baranof Island Housing Authority parking lot next to ANB Founders Hall.
Since COVID-19 is still around, we will require masks inside the ANB Founders Hall when Sitka is at the Moderate/Medium or High risk levels, and make them optional when our risk levels are lower. While most people now are vaccinated against the coronavirus, there still are people who are high risk medically, or aren’t vaccinated, and there are periodic hot spots when the illness flares up. We don’t want the market to be a place that spreads the coronavirus. Even with our outside booths, we encourage vendors and customers to wear masks, to use hand sanitizer, and to avoid bunching up while giving others six feet of space.
In 2020, we launched our online vendor registration website, http://sitkafarmersmarket.eventsmart.com, and we will continue to use that this year. Vendors need to register by the Thursday before each market to be guaranteed a spot. Tables/booths are $40 each, with a special of $240 (instead of $280) for someone registering for all seven markets before the first one takes place. We also have a youth vendor program, where youth ages 14 or younger can reserve a table for $20 for the full season. Since we are at Low on the COVID-19 risk level right now, we are offering half-tables this year at $25 each.
Please read the market vendor rules and responsibilities and Covid-19 protocol documents linked below. All vendors using this site to register for the market will be held to these rules. Unless you specify you want to be outside, we will try to find room for you indoors. We are not selling half-tables this year because we need social-distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Vendors can pay using PayPal or credit/debit card. When you get to the Payment options, click PayPal (not Invoice) and it should give you the option of using a PayPal account or four different types of cards (Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, Discover). If you prefer to pay by cash or check, contact Charles Bingham at 907-623-7660. We will provide a refund for cancellations, but to get the refund you are required to let us know before Wednesday of the week of your registered market that you can’t make it. This is $5 less than the $40 or $25 table fees, since we are billed for transaction fees and other expenses. There is no refund if you don’t let us know until after Wednesday.
Anastasia Stefanowicz is the new Sitka Farmers Market manager this summer. Laura Schmidt is our lead gardener at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, where the Sitka Local Foods Network grows most of the produce it sells at the market. Charles Bingham is the assistant market manager and the president of the Sitka Local Foods Network.
“I really love farmers markets because they show how connected to the land we still are and how much we still need it,” Stefanowicz said. “Our medicine comes from the earth; vegetables, greens, fruits. We get joy out of how we connect, the things we get to see grow and produce, and feel empowered when we can sustain ourselves from the things we nurture.”
“I chose to apply to work as the Sitka Farmers Market manager this year because I wanted to learn more about Alaska and how things thrive here,” she added. “I wanted another way to connect with the people and the community. I’ve grown up gardening, landscaping, and working on farms all over the U.S. Doing this is giving me a chance to keep learning — about climate differences, growing regions, sustainability, and connection. I’m looking forward to learning a lot of new things this year.”
In addition to vendors, we also are looking for volunteers to help us set up the markets, take down the markets, and sell produce at the Sitka Local Foods Network farm stand during the market. You can get more information about how to volunteer by emailing sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com or contacting Stefanowicz at 505-316-0099.
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