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Please consider supporting VPSU by donating through PayPal or by mailing a check to VPSU. All funds are deposited in the VPSU account at the Passumpsic Savings Bank. All donations go directly to this community action. Your donations support: purchase of bulk seed, printed materials, office supplies, mailing and direct delivery of seed boxes, and web hosting. Any excess funds are used to support the work of World Central Kitchen in Ukraine and the Ukraine Children's Action Fund.
“Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
While it may hold a seed of truth that the world is replete with "lengthened shadows," VPSU needs each and every Vermonter, child, woman and man. We need every school, church, organization, business, town, city and branch of state government to play a part in turning our beautiful state into one endless sunflower garden. Is this simple act of solidarity not the least that we can do to turn away darkness?
VPSU has no paid staff. We are using existing phone lines, office supplies and equipment and home-office space. Web design and updates are done literally "in house."
Our expenses include: banking and fundraising, VPSU email accounts, domain-name purchase, Web hosting, logo design, printing rack cards and envelopes, travel, and sourcing seeds. Our expected budget for 2023 is $4,000+.
In 2022 we purchased over 600,000 Autumn Beauty multi-branching sunflower seeds in bulk to be broken down into smaller amounts for schools, churches and other organizations that joined with us in their own Vermont communities. In 2023 we shared over a million seeds. We will provide our VPSU custom seed-packet envelopes to any town and city in Vermont, our state government, churches, schools, libraries, organizations, businesses and individual Vermonters who join us and request our seeds and materials. Our supplies are dependent upon future donations and our ability to source seeds. One cup of seed will fill 192+ packets at 50+ seeds per packet. We will either deliver seeds and packets in person or though USPS. (See Blog post)
VPSU places seed packets at hundreds of business locations and continue to add locations. Let us know if there are locations that might carry our seed packets in your community. If you are a business owner, please consider making a small space where your customers could see our packets and take them home for spring planting.
If, and hopefully when, this solidarity effort for Ukraine is no longer needed in its present form, any donated funds leftover from VPSU work will all be given to aid the people of Ukraine at that future time.
3/31/22 - Thank you to WCAX Channel 3 News for highlighting VPSU and our Vermont-based solidarity action for the people of Ukraine. Within hours of this airing, we are already receiving a lot of new inquires, expressions of support and questions about how to participate.
4/4/22 - Thank you to Ric Cengeri of the WDEV Vermont Viewpoints radio show for inviting VPSU to highlight its work this morning. If you missed it, you can listen to the archive of our interview.