More Seedlings by Bike – A story that’s Gemlike!
Do you have panniers, or a trailer for your bike to haul kids and other precious items? Or a basket or bike rack? Maybe, you know someone who does?
COVID-19 has brought some surreal, jarring yet amazing times to our lives. So by popular demand with the help of YOU, our astounding volunteers, Valley Verde and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) are recruiting more volunteers to deliver 'plant seedlings' by bike on Saturday, May 23rd, 2020 (sign me up now: complete form here)? Anyone with a bike who can ride, is welcome to sign up.
A week ago, on May, 9th 2020, we had an astonishing number of volunteers signed up & some delivered a bag of 6 plant seedlings by bike. Sadly, we had to turn away a few volunteers, however if you are interested, available and want to do some good next weekend, we’d love your assistance…
Who’s Valley Verde, you ask?Valley Verde is a nonprofit farm in San Jose dedicated to building healthy and resilient communities by providing low-income families educational programs, edible gardens, and micro-entrepreneurship opportunities that create food security and lead to self-sufficiency.
Specifically, the organization:
Celebrates and increases knowledge of how to grow food to improve the resilience and health of families and individuals that are low-income or struggling financially.
Provides an income stream from growing and selling seedlings. Under normal circumstances, Valley Verde sells seedlings at the annual seedling fair. Unfortunately, the seedling fair was canceled due to the shelter in place mandate creating a loss of revenue to families and Valley Verde.
Instead, Valley Verde has decided to give the seedlings away to families that are low-income or struggling financially and has enough seedlings for 300 more families. To avoid 300 cars driving to the small urban farm in Downtown San Jose, Valley Verde looked to the bicycling community to see if we might be interested in helping out and building connections. Knowing that you all are itching to ride AND do some good during this crisis, we figured it would be a great marriage.
When/Where/How? This next round of plant seedling deliveries will take place Saturday, May 23rd. Each family will receive a 6×8 sized box/bag containing 6 plant seedlings (an example of which is pictured in the margin). The seedlings will likely be about 7-10 inches tall by then and consist of two tomato plants, plus one each of cucumber, zucchini, bell pepper and either padron or jalapeño pepper, along with seeds for green beans, green onions, spinach, lettuce carrots and radish. Riders will show up, get their seedlings, the address(es) of families, and then drop those seedlings off to the families front porch or lawn.
What is needed?
Someone who likes to pedal long distances (10 to 50+ mile options available) and would relish an excuse to ride all over San Jose.
A bike equipped to carry seedlings. Panniers worked the best last time, to carry a bag with 6 seedling (approximately 6×10) packages. If you have a trailer or something similar and can carry multiple packages, this works as well. The hope is for you to deliver to more than one family in one run!
If you have boxes that help stabilize seedlings based on your bike set up, please bring them. As noted above each set of seedlings takes up about 6x10x10 inches of space.
Also, bring items that can help secure the seedlings, like straps; and
Don't forget your face mask.
This sounds great! Where do I sign up? To sign up for our Saturday, May 23rd delivery date, please click on the google form here.Please also help us by forwarding this to your friends and family who would love some outdoor time and might want to participate. You’ll need to sign up for a time slot as soon as possible so that we comply with health directives. We also ask a few other questions about your hauling capability and how many miles you’re up for biking that day. It’s important that we avoid a logjam of bicyclists all coming to the farm at one time, so be sure to indicate a time slot. Remember, to please bring your mask to wear as well.
I'm Busy Next Weekend, but I'd LOVE to join SVBC and help continue these amazing and soulful connections.
Questions? Please contact Kate@bikesiliconvalley.org