Dear Rooted Community:
 
We are very proud to share with you our 2023 Impact Report, which tells the story of how we lived into our mission last year and what we have done to prepare for 2024 and beyond. Connecting the community through food, land, and learning is what gets our team up in the morning, often early to check on the chickens, harvest food for our community, and prepare for events and field trips at our land-based sites.
 
As you will learn, we have had a lot of significant changes at Rooted, and what makes our work sustainable through those changes are the committed board members who stayed for the journey and the new members who joined to continue moving the organization forward. We are thankful for our staff, who are the heartbeat of our organization. We have seen some staff return from other adventures, and we have sent others off to new endeavors in the food system and beyond. Some of our employees have been with us since they were youth in our programs, and are now working in our Rooted in Agriculture youth employment program.
 
While the people who do the work are crucial, the land we steward is just as important to how we provide programming. When the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center was closed for indoor programming for much of 2023, we still met our goal to connect the community with virtual and outdoor programs. We worked hard at Troy Farm and Gardens to meet the demands of our CSA farm and the local Northside community centers and partners, and we increased activity at the newly renamed Madison School Farm.

Rooted has adapted to a lot of change over the past few years and grown strong roots in our communities, and we hope to continue that work in collaboration with the community and our supporters. While this Impact Report will give you a glimpse into how we have served in 2023, we hope you will contact us to come and visit our sites and see our work in action. We look forward to partnering with you as we continue to grow community. Together.
 
Sincerely yours,