Olympic Carbon Fund
The Bucket Share Program
Food security for our region will entail more than farms and market gardens. Fortunately, many folk in our region are growing food in their own yard, and the more that do, the more secure we all become. The Olympic Carbon Fund wants to support residents who grow their own food, but a cubic yard of biochar is way too much for any one-household food garden, requires a pickup or trailer, is bulky and unwieldy to unload, and takes up space. Plus, not least important, the Fund gets used up way too fast. This is our attempt to support home food gardeners without breaking the Fund.
How it works... Someone offers to host a Bucket Share pop-up event. That person is responsible for picking up the super sack and depositing it at the pop-up site. OCF sends an email to everyone on the Bucket List (sic) to let them know that a Bucket Share event is happening now, and includes the name, address and phone number of the host, and host instructions. The Bucketeer then shows up and fills two or three 5-gallon buckets (or equivalent) from the sack. The event ends when the bag is empty.
​
After charging that biochar and incorporating it into the soil of their food gardens, Bucketeers will be eligible to participate in another Bucket Share.
Hosting... Host responsibilities include getting the super sack to the pop-up site and perhaps taking questions by phone or text from Bucketeers. When the bag is empty, the host reports back to OCF on the success of the event, and returns the bag to Olympic Biochar.
There is no policing involved. Ideally, there is a sign by the sack that invites non-Bucket-List food gardeners to go ahead and take a small bucketful to experiment with, giving the website address in case they want to sign up for future notifications.
For their trouble, hosts may take up to 10 bucketfuls out of the super sack for their own use. To offer to be a host, pretend you are a farm ordering a free yard of biochar, then in the site description field say "Bucket Share". OCF will be in touch to talk about timing and coordination.