HELP WANTED:  FARM MANAGER, Woodstock, specializing in fruits and vegetables on large scale, coach volunteers to feed hungry through food banks.  Send resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Production Horticulturist who is knowledgeable and experienced in the cultivation, planting, growing, maintenance and harvesting of vegetables on non-profit farm entering fifth year.  Sixty-five acre farm located near Woodstock, VA produced 215 tons of vegetables in eight years, all of which was donated to area food bankS, food pantries and soup kitchens feeding more than 150,000 people per month.  Farm utilized approximately 15,000 volunteers (mostly under 18 years of age) for planting and harvesting.  Support is provided in office management and recruitment/scheduling/coordination of volunteers.

Personal Requirements:

● Positive thinker with  of energy and aggressiveness, devoted to helping the hungry.

● Knowledge and experience in growing on large scale an extensive range of vegetables.

●             Able to analyze and solve problems

●             Excellent organizational and supervisory skills

●             Good communication and teaching skills

●             Enjoys instructing and mentoring young volunteers with confidence and patience

●             Farm equipment mechanical aptitude

●             Aptitude for working with computers for planning, budgeting, scheduling

●             Cautious, constantly concerned with safety and protection of visitors

●             Certified for application of farm chemicals and operating knowledge of modern drip irrigation  system.

Manager shall perform the following tasks:

●             Under supervision of the Chief Executive Officer, manage the capital, plans

and strategic direction of the farm under policies of the Board of Directors.

●             Manage the financial aspects of the business by controlling expenses.

●             Organize and manage the various functions of the farm with the aid of

volunteers.

●             Decide or advise on the kind of crops to be grown, the area to be sown or

planted.

●             Plan the type of farming activities to be undertaken, estimate operating costs

and order supplies such as seed, fertilizer, and farm equipment.

●             Manage with aid of volunteers the irrigation system to provide appropriate

moisture to growing plants utilizing plastic mulch and drip irrigation.

●             Assuring health and safety of all farm visitors, direct farm volunteer workers

on crop growing and harvesting.

●             Perform farming functions to be instructive to volunteers.

●             Assure that all equipment (tractors, implements, sprayers, trucks, wagons),

are operated away from all volunteers to protect them from accidents or

health problems.

●             Plan activities to minimize environmental degradation, monitor

environmental effects of farming activities and repair existing damage.

●             Maintain records to help in future planning and scheduling of plantings and chemical application.

Position is Full-Time near Woodstock, VA starting in 2012, salary to be negotiated based on education and experience with substantial bonus to be based on amount of production.  30 day paid vacation in winter at end of first year, but no other benefits.  Send resume to Volunteer Farm, 277 Crider La. Woodstock, VA 22664. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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THANKS TO THE TJX FOUNDATION

for a $2,500 grant for fruit trees and berry bushes for the Culpeper Farm.

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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.

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.

T

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.