Sonoma County cyclists combat food insecurity with fundraiser ride

Cyclists pedaled from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol on Saturday early morning to raise recognition for a gardening nonprofit in a experience organized by Neighborhood Marketplace, the Community Yard Initiative and the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.

The ride started at Local community Market’s Santa Rosa site on Mendocino Avenue, wherever members decorated their bikes with ribbons and flowers right before using off together the Joe Rodota Path. At the midway mark of the near to nine-mile experience, cyclists stopped for snacks and beverages.

The journey finished at the market’s Sebastopol place on Sebastopol Avenue where by contributors relished are living songs by neighborhood Americana folks musician JP Soden, smoothies and popcorn for the cost of a donation, and perused plants and community artwork for sale.

All money raised went toward the Neighborhood Yard Initiative, an firm launched by Santa Rosa Junior Faculty college student Ammon Jordon working to combat food insecurity by setting up home gardens for free.

The art sale highlighted prints and crochet merchandise by 3 Sonoma State University learners, as nicely as handmade candles by the Community Backyard Initiative’s Jordon.

When Community Sector has arranged bike trip activities in the previous, this is the very first year the event was utilized as a fundraiser, according to the market’s Advertising and marketing Coordinator Lisa Waltenspiel. The aim for the party was $4,500, with cash elevated primarily by donations, she reported.

“It’s aspect of our mission to support nearby neighborhood teams,” Waltenspiel said.

Jordon claimed that the revenue will be utilised to install gardens about the Bay Location and cover lumber and soil prices as effectively as basic operational expenses for the nonprofit.

The business has so considerably put in five residence gardens in Sonoma and Marin counties, as nicely as two community gardens in Rohnert Park and Oakland, he claimed.

“We recognized that expanding your have foods is incredibly potent and revolutionary. Not a whole lot of people today know how to do it, we’re incredibly disconnected from the land,” Jordon claimed.

For more info, check out neighborhoodgardeninitiative.org.