TOPIC: Fred's Mary's Hands Auction Oct 21st - Nov 1st

With our first deliveries for 2026 starting, I wanted to give some updates on what we were able to accomplish in 2025 and what we are working on for 2026.

We finished 2026 with approximately 4,000 pounds of produce donated in addition to direct food aid when SNAP was suspended as well as providing starts for some of the communities we serve. The total value of what was done exceeded $35,000! That is the highest total since we started Mary's Hands!

The fundraising for 2026 (the TD community was a huge part of that) turned out to be twice helpful. After purchasing seeds and amendments, we had several hundred dollars left over. Then, a few weeks ago, we got a power surge from Xcel that fried the controls of the warming mats in our greenhouse. We had alarms for it getting too cold or hot in the greenhouse overall but didn't have any warnings that the warming mats would suddenly decide to go from 80F to 120F. We lost about a third of all our starts for the year. Fortunately, we had enough funds left over to work with a local grower, Irish Farms (we strongly recommend them to anyone in the greater Denver area), to replace what we lost at great pricing.

This year, we are adding a 5th site that we'll provide produce and are substantially expanding our program of helping low income communities with their own gardens by providing starts and guidance. Those gardens may add as much as another 25% to the overall produce grown. With higher food costs and limited SNAP assistance, we keep trying to expand to fill the need but aren't close to what the communities need overall. For now, we'll do what we can and encourage other farms to set aside more of what they commercially grow to help.

So far this year, we've already harvested lettuces and green onions thanks to the early warm weather. The next week is a huge push for us to get most everything left into the ground. We're fortunate to have local volunteers that are helping - it's a lot with thousands of plants

Last note for this update - we'll likely do the annual auction about the same time as last year. Taking advantage of coloradogives fundraising added a couple thousand dollars to our total last year in matching funds. The auction will likely start late October and run about two weeks. Over the year, I'll post photos and updates on our progress. I'll also update the listings page with what will be in the auction for certain - teasing some cool items that will be available.

Thank you everyone for your support! Now, back to planting!

Hi Fred thanks for the update and Congrats on a record year for Mary's Hands!!

Amazing work, thanks for all you do!

Thanks for the update, Fred! I look forward to participating in the auction again this year.

The auction dates are now finalized based on the Coloradogives campaign starting November 1st (ie donations made starting Nov 1 are eligible for matching funds.)

I'm starting to populate what items will be in the auction - thank you for those who are generously donating items to be included as well!

This year has been hectic. Despite some early challenges with power fluctuations destroying nearly half our starts, we've recovered well. This year is on pace to be, by a decent margin, the most we've ever grown. Attached are some pics of what we've done so far!

That's incredible! Glad you were able to recover after some troubling starts! Looking forward to the auction!