​Based in Paulden, Juan Aguiar Bravo and Keeton Aguiar established Blooming Reed Farm in 2019, continuing in their family’s deep farming traditions (Juan is the son of Fernando Aguiar, featured later this month). They proudly use sustainable and no-till practices on their land to grow vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers.
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We especially loved adding this farm’s hearty root vegetables to the senior’s produce bags: sunchokes, parsnips, beets, and carrots!

Support Blooming Reed Farm this winter by following them on Facebook and Instagram, @bloomingreedfarm and buying their goodies at the Prescott Farmers Market on Saturdays, winter market hours 10am-1pm. Their produce is also available through Sun Produce Co-op for buyers in central/southern Arizona.

#farmerspotlight #azfmnp

We trust them. We like them. We buy from them. You should too.

Every Tuesday and Friday this December, we will feature all of the local farms and farmer cooperatives around Arizona who helped us deliver $36,000 worth of fresh, high-quality produce to over 1,200 seniors in need through the AZ Farmers Market Nutrition Program (AZFMNP). This special series is our way of showcasing and thanking them, so be sure to share and give them a follow!

INNOVATION: Bulk purchasing was a new component of the AZFMNP program this year. Previously in Arizona, $30 worth of farmers market checks or coupons were offered to eligible seniors who participate in CSFP, a monthly commodity food box offered by local food banks. Amid the uncertainty of COVID-19, we had to make a quick change in our coupon model. We decided to bulk-purchase and deliver thousands of pounds of fresh produce directly to food banks and senior housing sites.

This adaptation ensured that seniors unable to attend farmers markets were still able to receive fresh produce from their local farmers. It was impactful to support farmers across the state during October and November, which are typically leaner, transitional months as summer crops wind down due to frost and changing seasons, and winter crops begin to mature.

We trust these farms and are so grateful for their partnership and their hard work. We buy from them, and you should too!

Thanks for following along!#azfmnp

We chose language and communications for our first discussion because if we have learned anything, we've learned that language matters!  Our goal is to recognize how bias manifests itself at Pinnacle Prevention and navigate our roles and actions to eliminate practices that invite/perpetuate bias.

Resource Shared: Sum of Us – A Progressive’s Style Guide

We are all grappling with fear, anxiety, anger, and a host of mixed emotions surrounding COVID-19. As we navigate the ever-changing information and the range of  emotions, one thing is overwhelmingly clear – we must do our part. We care deeply for each other as a team, and we care deeply for the community. In Arizona and all other communities where cases of COVID-19 are alarmingly on the rise, we are seeing those cases filter into our own personal circles. The question has become: not IF, but WHEN will COVID-19 impact our team and work directly?
 
While we are proud of our safe and flexible work environment, we know that there are still opportunities for improvement. The goals of the Pinnacle Prevention COVID-19 Workplace Safety and Operational Continuity Plan are to:
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• prevent and reduce the transmission among employees,
• maintain a healthy work environment,
• maintain healthy business operations to mitigate interruptions of essential functions, and
• ensure prevention practices are in place that reflect our commitment to ‘do our part’ to support community health and well being.

 
We are sharing our plan to be transparent - and to perhaps inspire others to create a version for their team or family.
 
Beyond having a plan on paper, we have also considered the policy, system, and environmental supports that we can implement as a workplace. These supports are both good business practices and good for the long-term well being of the team. They include:

• ensuring the team has access to paid leave and quality healthcare benefits,
• implementing creative ways to engage and interact with each other from home,
• offering flexibility to take care of personal and family needs while working from home, understanding that we are all managing differing workloads and family expectations, and
• providing the team with the tools they need to be successful working from home.

​We continue to have honest, vulnerable, and transparent discussions with each other and our partners, listening and sharing about what we all have the bandwidth to handle at any given point in time on top of family demands.
 
Isolation is hard. We are wired for human connection. Despite this – we are playing our part.
 
What’s your plan?

​Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating the liberation of enslaved people in the United States. Lincoln proclaimed the emancipation of enslaved people, effective Jan. 1, 1863, however en-slavers were responsible for telling them that they were free, and some ignored the order for up to two and a half years. Union troops were called upon to enforce it and General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to inform the last of the slaves that the Civil War had ended and they were free. What followed was a mix of shock and jubilation that resonated so much so that they began celebrating June 19 the very next year in the same town square, and named it combining June and 19th.  Today, while not a national holiday, it is observed in the majority of American states by members of the black community.
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This is only a short synopsis that does not fully encompass the whole story and we encourage you to visit the resources below to learn more about Juneteenth. 

"Recounting the memories of that great day in June of 1865 and its festivities would serve as motivation as well as a release from the growing pressures encountered in their new territories."
https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm


"We should care because the very fabric of our society depends on our shared religion of inalienable rights. A celebration of freedom for any American is a celebration of the ideals that make our country what it is today."
https://time.com/4373253/juneteenth-2016/


"The announcement actually urged Freedmen and Freedwomen to stay with their former owners"
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/06/juneteenth-has-always-been-worthy-celebration/613270/


Black Joy - Not Corporate Acknowledgement - is the heart of Juneteeth
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth


The Juneteenth Broadcast: The #HUNGERFORJUSTICE Series​
http://www.agrowingculture.org/hfj/

Pinnacle Prevention is a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing healthy families and communities. ​Our mission is to inspire and ​advance a healthy food system and opportunities for active living to all people. When we say all people – we mean all people. Our mission and purpose are fundamentally tied to equity, and this is why we stand against racism, and the violence and injustices faced by black and brown communities. Black lives matter.
 
To fulfill our mission, we are committed to ensuring that our policies, systems, and environments help achieve a healthier future for all Arizonans. This starts by addressing the racial injustices and social inequities felt by communities of color that are reinforced year after year through a system that is not currently addressing the roots causes of these problems. All of our work to make healthy communities a reality means nothing if black and brown people are made to live in fear for their lives. We want kids to be able to move and play outside, but this cannot be done if a black mother is afraid for her black son to go out to play at the local park. We want families to have access to healthy foods, but this can’t be done if a black family has to travel miles out of their way to buy fresh produce – and fears for their life on that journey to find food. The trauma of racism has run deep for centuries – deeply systematic and deeply personal.
 
We hear and see your hurt, anger, fear, and grief resulting from the long history of white supremacy. Outrage against the system, in this case police brutality, is necessary to achieve social transformation. Our Pinnacle Prevention team is dedicated to doing the work of social justice, during and after this news cycle, and we also acknowledge that this work is ongoing for us internally. We recognize that we are an organization that is predominately white, but through our privilege there is an opportunity to move beyond just being sympathetic but taking actions to make change. We stand with communities of color by channeling our energy and actions into tackling systemic racism so that we truly can help grow healthy families and communities for all people.
 
Want to take action? Donate to these amazing black and brown led organizations working on food and health justice here in Arizona:

• Drinking Gourd Farms: http://drinkinggourdfarms.com/
• Tiger Mountain Foundation: https://tigermountainfoundation.org/non-profit-community-garden
• Spaces of Opportunity: https://dbg.org/community/spaces-of-opportunity/
• Iskashitaa Refugee Network: https://www.iskashitaa.org/
• Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA): https://luchaaz.org/

 
We invite our colleagues working within the food system and built environment system to discuss privilege and work through this with us. The conversation won’t end with the news cycle.

Sincerely,
The Pinnacle Prevention Team