Giving Tuesday CommUNITY Donation: Solidarity, not charity...

Mandy's Farm is a nonprofit organization that assists individuals with developmental disabilities in achieving their goals for living, learning, and working in the community. Mandy's Farm serves over 200 adults with developmental disabilities living in the Albuquerque metro area. The services at Mandy's Farm provide a lifeline to adults with disabilities, allowing them to successfully participate in their community, obtain and retain employment, and reduce instances of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

We hope you will support our mission on December 1, 2020, known as Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is a national day of philanthropy, following ThanksGiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Join this national effort to support community nonprofits by making a gift to Mandy's Farm or another nonprofit you love.

The past year has truly demonstrated the importance of collaborative partnerships within the nonprofit community. There isn't any single organization that can address a community problem on its own. This Giving Tuesday, as part of a collaborative effort among many nonprofit organizations, Mandy's Farm is providing the opportunity for you to maximize your reach. When you make a donation, you may also select one of three organizations of your choice that will receive 50% of your gift. These organizations are:

• Food is Free Albuquerque is a grassroots nonprofit focused on building access to fresh, locally grown foods through programs focused on gathering, gleaning and at-home growing. Food is Free Albuquerque has been an ongoing cheerleader for Mandy's Farm and provides the information and resources necessary to ensure that excess produce grown within our agricultural programs reaches community members experiencing food insecurity.

• Three Sisters Kitchen is a nonprofit community food space in the heart of downtown Albuquerque that uses the power and love of local food to create economic opportunity, improve community health, and bring our diverse communities together around the table. A place where delicious, affordable, and locally produced foods come together to nourish our community from the ground up. Three Sisters Kitchen has been a valuable partner with Mandy's Farm since its opening. TSK has included Mandy's Farm in their ReFresh program, through which they increase access to healthy, locally grown, fresh fruits and vegetables for households dealing with food insecurity. They also added Mandy's Farm products (handmade soaps, lotions, and more) to the shelves of their community shop, through which they sell locally-made goods.

• New Mexico BioPark Society's mission is to make the exceptional possible at the ABQ BioPark. The ABQ BioPark has been an incredible partner through the Mandy's Farm VAMOS Program. As part of the VAMOS Program, young people with disabilities are placed at various internship sites across the city, where they are paid for their time completing typical work assignments and tasks to build their resumes and on-the-job experience. The ABQ BioPark has been a successful and incredibly popular internship site during each VAMOS cohort since the program first launched in 2018.