FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
More organic farmland saved as PCC Farmland Trust Receives $100,000 grant from Washington Women's Foundation
(Seattle, Wash. (June 25, 2008) — The Washington Women's Foundation ("WWF") named PCC Farmland Trust (the "Trust") the beneficiary of a $100,000 grant last week at a celebration event in Seattle. The Trust was one of five beneficiaries to receive grants from the pooled fund, totaling $500,000, which was the largest pool in the Foundation's history. This grant to will enable the Farmland Trust to accelerate work on its ambitious goal of saving five farms in the next five years.
An excited buzz went through the room as the award to the Trust was announced. About 200 WWF members learned of the "winners" for the first time that evening. Other beneficiaries included Artist Trust, Friends of the Children, First Place and Girl Scouts of Western Washington. Funds from WWF will be leveraged as a 1:1 Challenge Grant to donors of the Trust, as well as an additional challenge of $50,000 added from one of the Trust's major donors. This gives the $100,000 grant from WWF the potential of growing to $300,000 to support acquisition of local threatened farmland.
PCC Farmland Trust is a critical link in the effort to ensure that organic farming continues to grow and thrive in the Northwest. Since 1999, the Trust has been saving farmland and ensuring that farms stay in the hands of farmers who will farm the land sustainably, for generations to come. Washington Women's Foundation's commitment to strengthen the community aligns with the Trust's mission of saving local organic farmland forever. Through acquisition of conservation easements which remove development rights, the Trust brings the cost of land down for farmers and guarantees the land will be farmed organically in perpetuity.
Kathryn Gardow, Executive Director of PCC Farmland Trust, applauded WWF's foresight: "We are at a particularly critical point for farms and farmers-people are really beginning to realize the importance of making sure that we have sources of safe, local, organic food. And as we face increasing competition for land from residential and commercial development, the Washington Women's Foundation grant puts us in a far stronger position to both save more land, and support the hard-working Washington farmers who face all sorts of obstacles and challenges in providing healthy, sustainably-grown food for local communities."
To date, PCC Farmland Trust has saved the 74-acre Delta Farm in Sequim, Washington, 178-acre Ames Creek Farm in East King County and 174-acre Bennington Place Farm outside of Walla Walla, Washington. The Trust is currently working on saving 100 acres in the south Puyallup Valley in Pierce County, as well as a collaborative project with the Nature Conservancy in Thurston County that will highlight the connections and mutual benefits between conservation and sustainable agriculture.
About PCC Farmland Trust: PCC Farmland Trust is an independent, community-supported 501(c)(3) land trust. Founded in 1999 as a separate, non-profit organization by PCC Natural Markets, a certified organic retailer headquartered in Seattle, Washington. the Trust's mission is to preserve Northwest farmland threatened by development and move it into sustainable and organic agricultural production. Since its inception, PCC Farmland Trust has secured the future of four irreplaceable farms in Washington State. Learn more at www.pccfarmlandtrust.org
About Washington Women's Foundation: Washington Women's Foundation is a donor education and grant-making organization of nearly 500 women who come together to pool and direct financial and intellectual resources, learn about community issues and collaborate on their solutions, develop leadership skills, better focus personal giving, and serve as philanthropic role models to others. Since its founding in 1995, members of the Foundation together have invested more than $8 million in our community through 54 large impact pooled grants and over 3,700 individual grants, benefiting more than 860 nonprofit organizations. Find out more at www.wawomensfoundation.org