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Community Agriculture reports strong plant-sales fundraising, expands school garden support
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Summary
Alpharetta's Community Agriculture staff reported more than $9,000 in plant-sale revenue with expectations to exceed $10,000, announced a match program with a building materials nonprofit and said school garden partnerships expanded from 9 to 12 schools (18 total partnerships).
A Community Agriculture and Sustainability Division staff member reported to the Recreation Board that the recent garden fair and plant sale have generated more than $9,000 in sales so far and that the division expects to exceed $10,000 when grower pick-up concludes.
The speaker said 100% of plant-sale proceeds will go into a capital fund to help renovate the Old Rucker Farm house into a community center. The division has also applied for and received a materials-match commitment from the Atlanta Lifecycle Building Center, a nonprofit that salvages and resells building materials and can provide donated materials such as cabinets, drywall, lighting and trim for renovation projects.
Staff also announced an expansion of the school garden support program: three additional schools were added, bringing the program to 12 schools that will each receive up to 700 seedlings per school year; the speaker said this raises the total number of schools with partnerships to 18 when including other programs.
Staff described a pilot to increase volunteer coordinator capacity at the farm, which expanded regular volunteer days from three to five or six weekly sessions, and said the revised volunteer model is reducing the need to hire additional maintenance staff. The report included logistics about the summer plant distribution schedule and an ongoing self-serve plant sale at Old Rucker Farm.
Board members asked about fundraising targets and timelines; staff said final renovation cost estimates will be known after architectural revisions and contractor bids, and that the division expects to provide a fundraising update next month.
No formal actions were taken at the meeting; the report was informational.
