Dear John,

I’m glad I can count on you to stand with Farm Aid and family farmers. There are many ways to support our mission to strengthen family farmers, like joining us at a Farm Aid festival or through your generous support of our work with and for family farmers. Your partnership has enabled us to accomplish so much this year.  

In 2024, Farm Aid

• Granted nearly $1.5 Million to strengthen family farmers and the work of farm and rural organizations across the United States.
   
• Responded to major natural disasters, including drought and wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, and Hurricanes Helene and Milton across the Southeast. Farm Aid granted $235,000 to support impacted farmers.
   
• Partnered with USDA’s Farm Service Agency to create The Distressed Borrowers Assistance Network (DBAN) to provide personalized support to financially distressed farmers and ranchers across the country.
   
• Updated our Farmer Resource Guides and translated them into Spanish, making invaluable resources available to more farmers and farmworkers.
   
• Produced five regular episodes of our podcast, Against the Grain, plus four bonus episodes.
   
• Brought our festival back to New York and celebrated farmers, good food and agriculture with a crowd of 21,000. Farm Aid 2024 was a certified zero waste event, thanks to our HOMEGROWN Concessions composting effort and our volunteer Green Team!
   
• Gathered and rallied hundreds of farmers and farm advocates at our Farmer Forum: A Rural Call to Action to All a day before the Farm Aid festival.
   
• Supported Dave Matthews Band and Neil Young + Crazy Horse to bring our sustainable HOMEGROWN menu items to their tours.
   
• Announced a leadership transition with Jennifer Fahy and Shorlette Ammons stepping in on January 1 to succeed Carolyn Mugar, Farm Aid’s first and only executive director since our start in 1985.

Looking ahead to 2025, Farm Aid is capable and ready to do all we can build a system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities. We can’t do it without our essential partners—including YOU!

In 2025, Farm Aid will

• Answer our 1-800-FARM-AID hotline whenever farmers and ranchers face natural disasters and other challenges on their farms.
   
• Connect farmers with the resources they need to stay on the land via our hotline, our online Farmer Resource Network and the Distressed Borrowers Assistance Network.
   
• Keep fighting (for the third year!) for a long-overdue Farm Bill that supports farmers, our climate and equity and fairness.
   
• Stand with and for family farmers and rural community members by centering their voices and sharing their stories and wisdom.
   
• Build power with farmers, advocates, eaters and activists to tackle daunting issues like factory farms and corporate power.
   
• Bring you the stories that illustrate the challenges farmers face so that together we can build a vibrant, family farm-centered food system that benefits all of us.
   
• Celebrate Farm Aid’s 40^th anniversary and the anniversaries of our partners and the grassroots movement that rose up out of the Farm Crisis of the 1980s to say loud and clear that farmers are too important to be lost.

Farm Aid counts on the generosity and support of people like you. Thanks for being there for the family farmers that bring good food to our tables and strengthen our communities.

Stay Strong and Positive,

Willie Nelson