NEWFANE-I found myself wanting to know much more about SUSU Community Farms before launching into its #GiveBlack fundraising effort this fall.
Apparently, the organization has a yearly operating budget of $1 million and needs to raise $200,000, which they hope will then lead to an additional grant of $600,000. The Vermont Land Trust has apparently helped them buy the land this year.
That's a heck of a lot of money.
How many farms are using all of their meager resources and creative endeavors to just survive (and feed people) on so much less money? It would be nice to know something about how SUSU is using their funds.
The article gives us almost entirely vague philosophical language to describe its organizational purpose.
For instance, they draw on the "black womanist beliefs of collective ancestors," and practice "food and land sovereignty."
They want to bring the Afro-Indigenous dream to life through connection to land and liberation. They apparently run "Trauma Conscious School of Liberation programs" and a Grief Garden.
Most concretely, they have a CSA program to provide 60 member families with food. "Food is a birthright," they say.
With the money, they want to hire staff, build infrastructure, covered spaces, and teaching areas. At this point, as one can see from driving by, they have constructed a greenhouse and several canvas-type covered spaces.
Their 2022 IRS Form 990 (the last one that is available online), indicates the group is a 501(c)(3) organization, so they pay no taxes. In that year, they had received contributions totaling $2.4 million. "Other expenses" an additional $333,000.
Salaries were over $500,000, including two paid, 40-hour-per-week employees, also officers of the nonprofit, earning $80,000 each.
A quick review of their website has an Events page which lists a Grief Garden, from June 22 through Oct. 6, a farm work day on May 20, and "unbodying supremacy" open house on April 22. That's it: three events. There is a Botanica, which provides "spiritual, magical, and medicinal herbs." The program calendar is empty. The site mentions "lunar flow yoga" and ancestral seeds.
So, besides all this ancestral and anti-white-supremacy language, what are they doing with the million dollars a year? Virgina Ray's article gives us almost nothing to go on, yet lets them asks us to form groups of 10 volunteers each to organize significant fundraising events.
As wonderful as Vermont is, it is full of liberals who feel guilty about racism, but there are so few BIPOC organizations, or people, in the area, that residents have little to compare. I'd like to avoid a situation where too much money is flowing to an organization that may have trouble efficiently and effectively using such huge coffers.
The Commons could have been a vehicle for helping readers understand and analyze what SUSU is all about but chose instead to repeat vague and exciting tropes of political and spiritual enthusiasm.
Susan Mills
Newfane
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
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