Production Records:

In eight years—since inception—the Volunteer Farm Network has produced 215 tons of food, all of which was donated to food banks and food pantries now serving about one-third of the Commonwealth.  This accomplishment was made possible by the efforts of more than 15,000 volunteers—mostly under 18 years of age—who came from 42 states and 27 foreign countries.

NEWSLETTER

The E-Mail Newsletter of the Volunteer Farms has been greatly improved and is available free.  We promise to send it to you only when we have something to say, such as announcements for Volunteers, news releases, etc.  If you are a supporter of the Volunteer Farm of Culpeper or Woodstock, you will want to keep abreast of the latest news.  Send an e-mail to   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to obtain your free subscription.  And you can un-subscribe anytime.  It is our policy not to sell, loan or give any data or e-mail information about you.

THANKS TO WALMART

for $1,000 grant for the Volunteer Farms.

Will Rogers said:

"The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer."

$750 GRANT

We proudly announce a $750 grant from Operation Rice Bowl of the Diocese of Arlington.  The funds are to expand crops to include not only vegetables and melons but also fruit trees and berries on the Volunteer Farm of Shenandoah at Woodstock.

Help Wanted: A full-time data entry person is needed immediately to work with database in support of fund raising and volunteer coordination.  Web mastering a plus. Send resume by e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by mail to Volunteer Farms, 277 Crider Lane, Woodstock, VA 22664.

Either you are part of the Problem

or part of the Solution

This is not necessarily a New Year’s resolution suggestion, but more of a “how you live your life” thing.  It involves a realization that you can in fact make a difference in the world around you.—you can make it better or you can make it worse—even if just a little.  Either you are a part of the problem or you are part of the solution.

It may be as simple as brightening the life of someone with a kind word and a smile, or hollering at your kids for some dumb reason.  The differences you make in your daily life may be small, but it is very meaningful to those around you.  You have a choice in which direction you want to go.

Perhaps “Solipism” is involved in this premise:  The term comes from Latin solus (alone) and ipse (self).  Anything outside one’s own mind is unsure and may not exist.  This philosophy may involve extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.  And, to the extreme extent is bred distrust, discrimination, bias, prejudice, bigotry and hatred.

The flip side is “love thy neighbor,” one of the two commandments handed down by Jesus and found as a basic premise of every religion in the world.  It can be found in the premise of  “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  And so, we come full circle to either you are apart of the problem or part of the solution.

Whether you practice Solipism or you have deep-seated religious beliefs, we are talking how you live your life on a daily basis, if not a minute by minute basis.  Whether you hate the world and everyone who has a different language and skin color, or whether you love life and every person and creature, it is not easy to change your philosophy and the way you live your life.  There is a good chance that you may not have put much thought into this question, and you may not identify yourself with either point of view.

Look around you.  Do you have pity for your hungry neighbors, or do you bother to wonder about the predicament of your acquaintances that are out of work.  Or, do you believe that everyone in a breadline is scamming the system, “because we don’t have any one starving in this country.”  Do you realize that you can make a difference in the lives of others and that it is only a matter of deciding to be a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem.

While you may think of this as only a ploy for you to donate your volunteer time or your dollars to the World Foundation for Children and its program:  the Volunteer Farms, it is also a challenge for you to think about your life and how you can impact the lives of others. Decide if you want empower yourself to be a part of the solution to the many issues that face us in our daily lives.  Maybe it should be a New Year’s resolution.

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CAR FOR SALE:

1993 Toyota

Best Offer

Call Volunteer Farm at

540-459-2090

Inspect at

Volunteer Farm,

Woodstock

HELP!

Volunteers are still needed on the Volunteer Farm of Shenandoah (at Woodstock) to harvest tons of turnip and cabbage.  Two or three people would be sufficient,but 20 or 30 would be great.  If available, register under "volunteers" at the top left, or phone the farm at 549-459-2090.  We don't want these wonderful veggies to be wasted.

Thanks to Cathy and Dennis Stuter of Luray, our newest Good Neighbor Award Members of the Volunteer Farms.

THE VOLUNTEER FARMS OF WOODSTOCK AND CULPEPER PRODUCED A TOTAL OF 10 TONS OF FOOD DURING 2011, BRINGING THE EIGHT YEAR TOTAL TO 214 TONS.

WEALTHIEST AREAS SEE INCREASED NEED FOR FOOD AID

from Bloomberg News

The percentage of of US households using food stamps more than doubled this year in six of the nation's 10 wealthiest counties as more residents find themselves out of work and unable to sell their homes, according to a survey by the U. S. Conference of Mayors.  Unemployment was the main reason for requesting aid, followed by poverty, low-wage jobs and high housing costs.

In the Washington area, food stamp usage more than doubled in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, the two wealthiest in the nation.

Thanks to Steve Meyer of Ashburn for a wonderful $10,000 donation to the Volunteer Farms.

WORK IS UNDERWAY TO BURY OUR IRRIGATION PIPE

Now that we have a 300 foot agricultural well on the Woodstock Farm, we are burying pipe to be able irrigating the entire farm at one time, using black mulching sheets with drip irrigation tubing underneath.  No more worries about drought and our production and quality should increase.

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We are proud to announce that our Foundation has received an $8,000 grant for building our irrigation system at the Woodstock farm from the new well, described below, to the fields.  The grant came from the Freeman Family Fund through the Community Foundation serving Richmond and Central Virginia.

ST. FRANCIS de SALES CATHOLIC CHURCH OF PURCELLVILLE sent a great team of youngsters to the Woodstock farm, where they learned the difference between a potato and a tomato.

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PLUS, THE ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN CENTER OF STEPHAN'S CITY visited to harvest a ton of tomatoes and a couple of tons of potatoes, as pictured below:

Study Finds Area Children Going Hungry

by Candace Sipos, Northern VA Daily, 8/30/11

WINCHESTER--For the first time, an extensive national survey on child hunger rates has been broken down to the jurisdiction level, and local officials say the results aren't good.

There have been various attempts at measuring national child hunger rates, with an estimated 17 million children currently put in that category, but "what we haven't known is how that breaks down at a local level," said Michael McKee, vice president for planning and development with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

"This is the first study that actually answers that question," he said.

That answer is this:  More than 25 percent of Winchester's children--or about 1,440--are struggling with hunger.  Of the eight surrounding localities, that's the second highest percentage, with Page County having a more than 29 percent "child food insecurity" rate.  Frederick, Shenandoah and Warren fall within the 21 percent range.

Food insecurity occurs when a person doesn't have a healthy lifestyle because of monetary limitations, McKee noted.  Nationally, one in six adults are food insecure, while one in four children fall in that category.

"This is our problem in our community," McKee said.  "It's not someone else's problem.  It's not some other American kid.  It's our next-door neighbor.

You too can help!

Go to the Calendar (hit"Volunteer" at the top of the home page) and register online for the day or days you want to work.

The Volunteer Farms need bucks to help grow more food to feed the growing number of people needing food from our two food banks and the 800 food pantries and soup kitchens being served.  So, the next time you come to the farm, perhaps you will be able to bring a donation from you church, business, civic organization, and family to help feed our hungry neighbors.

The Volunteer Farms are in need of more buckets.  We have about 100 buckets, but they look like they have gone to war and were returned as POWS.  Most of the buckets were donated by constructions workers, but most guys in that line of work around here are unemployed, and their buckets aren't being used either.  So, if you can, the next time you visit the farm, bring a bucket you can leave behind for volunteers to use for rock-picking, planting or harvesting.

NEWS RELEASE

Fr. Richard Reed Joins Volunteer Farms

As Liaison to Churches for Mentoring

WOODSTOCK, VA—Fr. Richard Reed, former Chaplain of Massanutten Military Academy, has joined the Volunteer Farms, a program of the World Foundation For Children (WFC), as Director of Education/Mentoring.

The appointment was announced by Bob Blair, Chair & CEO of WFC, who said, “Fr. Reed is a major addition to our staff, making it possible for us to effectively increase our liaison with the 175 churches that support us financially and with mission teams to help grow crops to supplement the feeding of some 150,000 people per month through food banks and some 800 food pantries and soup kitchens. In addition, we will now conduct outreach to the other 1,500 churches in our service area covering a third of Virginia. Plus a similar number of civic and youth organizations.

“Fr. Reed will focus on developing youngsters into life-long volunteers.” Blair said.

“Since in the last seven years, we have had more than 11,000 volunteers from 42 states and 26 foreign countries, we recognize our obligation to help mentor the youngsters and cement their willingness to serve others.”

Fr. Reed has been a Pastor as well as an inter-faith chaplain for schools, hospitals and hospices for the last 16 years. He has served as a missionary to Southern Sudan and Honduras.

In addition he is a retired Lt. Commander in the U. S. Navy Medical Corps, managing multi-million dollar hospitals primarily aiding Marines injured in combat during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the First Gulf War.

He has a Master Degree in Health Administration from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University; Master of Divinity, Logos Christian College and Graduate School, and a BS in health care management from Southern Illinois University.

Fr. Reed is an Orthodox Catholic Priest, and has been married to Carol for 39 years. which will be 40 years in September. They have 9 grand children.

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Volunteer Farms need lots of help catching up   The Volunteer Farms of Woodstock and Culpeper need as many volunteers as possible to help catch up on planting delayed by continuous spring rains. The farms help provide nutritious vegetables to 150,000 people being fed monthly through area food banks. In seven years the Volunteer Farms have provided 204 tons of food to two food banks.   The farms are several weeks behind in planting, but it is possible to catch up on planting if sufficient volunteers immediately provide their services to help feed the hungry. "Church groups, civic groups individuals and families are needed," according to a farm spokesman.     The Culpeper farm will host a work party Saturday, May 28, from 8 a.m. to noon. As the fields dry, the Culpeper farm has been able to plant 3,000 tomato plants and 800 pepper plants grown by two Culpeper county high schools, which also provided agriculture students to plant on May 25.   The Woodstock farm has 2,300 pounds of potatoes ready to immediately plant on seven acres, plus 3,400 tomato plants and a half acre of bell peppers. In all, there are about 15,000 vegetable transplants that must get into the ground within the next couple of weeks, and even more transplants being grown by area high schools will be ready during the summer.   Volunteers work on the Woodstock farm Mondays through Saturdays, from 8 am until noon to escape the hot afternoon temperatures. Volunteers may register online, picking the day they wish to work from the calendar on the webat www.WorldFoundationforChildren.Com, by calling 540 459-DIRT (3478), or by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .     Additional work days are being scheduled for the Culpeper farm and arrangements can be made by calling or e-mailing the Volunteer Farm office.     The farm network is a program of the World Foundation for Children, a charity accepting tax deductible donations online or by mail at WFC, 277 Crider Lane, Woodstock, VA 22664.