Legacy Farms Virginia

Goal: $28,000.00

Specific Need

Welcome to #GiveChoose2024! Let’s Get Growin’ Together!

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For today's fundraising, we have a stretch goal of $28,000!

Your enthusiastic support has made us think even bigger! We know that with your help we can attain our big audacious goals...stretching our sights to adding additional flowerbeds and providing more beautiful bouquets filled with beautiful blooms and our apprentices' love.

Specifically, your support will fund more apprentice job opportunities in the entrepreneurial areas of floral design, plant propagation, customer service, public speaking, and writing!

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Over a third of our apprentices have grown into paid jobs in community businesses, using the job skills and personal development capacities we work on at Legacy. We bring an enthusiastic and tireless commitment to mentoring neurodivergent individuals with disabilities ages 16+ in Loudoun and surrounding counties. We’re especially invigorated to get growin’ in 2024, as we continue to expand our reach to provide more jobs and learning opportunities within a larger growing space. In 2023, Our neurodiverse staff grew and delivered a 183% increase in products delivered to customers: over 2,900 floral bouquets, vases, wholesale bundles, and boxes of produce. Real world job skils, in our Loudoun-based specialty cut floral business!

Supporting Legacy Farms during Give Choose, allows our organization to expand the number of apprenticeships we offer. We mentor more than just garden skills; we also teach product development, delivery, customer support, and related sales/marketing; as well as personal growth and development. Your support will allow us to introduce an even wider range of entrepreneurial opportunities and practical skills-building as we deliver subscription bouquets, wholesale bundles, retail flowers, and more!

Your donation will help us not only build out our gardens, but also fund our apprentices.

Funds will be directed toward our total budget for farm and program expansion including:

$1,500 Garden structures and equipment

$750 Apprentice pay for one season

$500 CSA and product supplies

$250 Garden supplies, compost, buckets, wrap, twine, tags

$100 for plugs, tubers, blubs, plant and floral starts

$75 for seeds, hand tools, buckets, etc.

$50 for apprentice supplies, including gloves, work shirts, etc.

Mission

Legacy Farms' mission is to empower neurodiversity in the workplace through mentor/apprentice programs. We serve individuals 16 years and older who identify as neurodivergent (ie, individuals with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, traumatic brain injury, PTSD and anxiety). In 2023, our apprentices, grew, harvested, and sold over 2,900 floral bouquets, vases, wholesale bundles, and boxes of produce. 69% of Legacy’s nonprofit roles are filled by neurodivergent individuals, as they are fully participatory team members of our organization. We worked with 36 neurodivergent individuals, 52 working team members, and 86 volunteers joining our growing community and thriving neurodiverse organization! Help us keep growing in 2024!

Profile

Legacy Farms offers apprenticeship-style learning and jobs to neurodivergent individuals who are in the process of transitioning beyond the educational system and have difficulty finding and maintaining employment. We focus on teaching work responsibilities and competencies while increasing personal awareness and self-regulation as foundational capacities that lead to improved employment and job retention for our apprentices.

This year we expanded our floral gardens, planting, harvesting and delivering over 2,900 floral bouquets, wholesale bundles, and produce boxes to customers via local business partners like Market Salamander, Lightfoot Restaurant, SimplyBe Coffee, Weird Brothers Coffee, and 100 Bowls of Soup. We also delivered to nonprofit partners including Loudoun Hunger Relief, A Place To Be, Morven Park, and more. In 2024, we'll be adding wholesale floral accounts, event arrangements, and offering floral events.

“We are so proud of our partnership with Legacy Farms. Not only do they donate beautiful fresh produce to us, they also bring flowers that we can deliver to our homebound senior citizens. Legacy Farms is giving people jobs and purpose, and is making a huge difference in our community. We thank them for all their good work!” - Jennifer Montgomery CEO, Loudoun Hunger Relief

All this growth offers new opportunities for our apprentices! Not only in planting and growing, but also in product design and delivery, sales and marketing, tours, writing, events, and other entrepreneurially related projects. We are also looking to expand our program through high tunnel and greenhouse installations that will allow for season extension where apprentices can learn plant propagation, growing small plants that will be put in our gardens.

We received increased community recognition this year with nominations for small business and leadership awards from the Loudoun Chamber, partner, grants, and more. This community support has allowed us to serve more neurodivergent individuals than ever before through innovative programs designed to mentor work skills and entrepreneurial leadership.

Legacy Farms 2023 Highlights ~ See the difference your donation makes!

We were selected as a 2023 Nonprofit of the Year Finalist and 2024 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Leader by Loudoun County Chamber.
Our neurodiverse staff grew and delivered a 183% increase in products delivered to customers: over 2,900 floral bouquets, vases, wholesale bundles, and boxes of produce in 2023!
69% of our nonprofit roles are filled by neurodivergent individuals as fully participatory team members: staff, board and committee members, mentors, entrepreneurial apprentices, and garden apprentices.
We worked with 36 neurodivergent individuals as part of 52 total team members and 86 volunteers joining our thriving neurodiverse organization