Big News! Living Lands Agrarian Network (LLAN) is joining Live Healthy to help strengthen our capabilities in educating, inspiring, and connecting Nevada County families to fresh, local, seasonal food. LLAN trains and mentors aspiring small-scale farmers, in addition to offering nutrition and farming education for youth. Together, the two non-profits will become “Sierra Harvest”. The transition to the new name and joint organization will take place over several weeks as we integrate our programs, website, and communications.
We already working with Living Lands through the Food Love Project, an educational farm started by farmer Amanda Thibodeau under the umbrella of Living Lands. “Farmer Amanda” also has been the Farm to School Program Coordinator for Live Healthy, and she is pleased to have her role simplified: “There was already overlap between the two organizations – it makes sense to combine them. Food Love will continue to host school field trips as part of Sierra Harvest’s Farm to School program, there will just be less paperwork.” “It was a natural fit,” says LLAN co-creator Leo Chapman. “We are looking forward to focusing more on our programming and mission with the support of Live Healthy’s administrative infrastructure and strong fundraising track record.”
LLAN’s farm internship and journeyman program complements Live Healthy’s other efforts (Farm to School Nutrition Education, School Food, Food Policy and Advocacy, and the upcoming Backyard Gardening program). LLAN also brings a deep community engagement piece to the organization. Live Healthy co-director Malaika Bishop is excited to introduce LLAN’s strong network of people who are excited about local food and farms to Live Healthy’s programming: “The combination of our two organizations strengthens the local food movement.”
LLAN staff will integrate into Live Healthy as staff, advisors, and board members. Phil Turner, who previously served as a board member for LLAN, will join Live Healthy’s board. Turner’s background in helping organizations make large scale changes in direction, culture and strategy should help ease the transition.
To celebrate, and introduce the community to the new organizational structure, Sierra Harvest is hosting a Soup Night in October — stay tuned for the date and location.This event will also serve as a fundraiser for the LLAN journeyman program.