Pine River Shares (PRS) is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a community dinner on Saturday, Oct. 21 from 5 – 7 p.m. The community dinner, organized, prepared and served by Pine River Valley residents and PRS volunteers, will feature a main dish and a birthday cake made with locally grown and produced ingredients to further emphasis the organization’s commitment to healthy, thriving communities in the Pine River Valley. The dinner will be held in the old Bayfield Middle School gym located next door to PRS’s Bayfield campus, at 653 S. East Street. Bring a friend, a side dish or dessert, if possible. Everyone is welcome!
Pine River Shares, a social justice leadership project, was formed by a small group of committed PRV residents 10 years ago with the mission to “bring together the knowledge, skills, and resources of people in the Pine River Valley to increase collective power and bring about positive social change resulting in healthy, thriving Pine River Valley communities.”
In early September, Bayfield Mayor Ashleigh Tarkington kicked off a month of fund-raising support from local businesses for PRS, emphasizing the community-building work that PRS has been engaged in, with the statement, “Over the last 10 years, Pine River Shares has lived and worked by their saying, “When everyone shares, no one goes without.”
Examples of this generosity of spirit are found in PRS’s volunteers. Paul Pavich, a retired Fort Lewis College English professor, has been volunteering at PRS for over five years. Paul oversees the PRS food room and assists with the ‘Food Support’ programs such as working with middle and high school students who pack backpacks with healthy snack foods that are then distributed weekly to elementary school students in Bayfield and Ignacio. For many students, these snack packs are important sources of nutrition during their weekends.
“I am so happy about the sense of community that PRS has created, from our youngest volunteers to those volunteers in their 80s,” Pavich said. “I work with students who received snack packs when they were in elementary school and, now as older students, want to be a part of the packing for the younger kids because of the impact receiving those snack packs had on their lives.”
Pine River Shares is a grass-roots organization that provides programming and support for the community, by the community. Other areas of service include ‘Food System Development’ which is currently thriving through Field to Fork, a Valley-wide project that plants and harvests food grown for distribution to food insecure Pine River Valley residents. Food is grown by volunteers in greenhouses, gardens and orchards in the Valley and distributed at weekly Family Food Shares. In 2022, Pine River Shares received $390,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act to rebuild the food system in the Pine River Valley through the Field to Fork initiative.
Over the last three years, PRS’s ‘Food Support’ programs have seen a striking rise in the community’s need for groceries and pet supplies due to the pandemic. Every month and every week, PRS volunteers and staff facilitate free food distribution in Pine River Valley communities. ‘Food Support’ programs include Food Shares, monthly distribution of food to residents of Pine River Valley; Commodity Food Distribution, monthly USDA Food Distribution and Pet Pantry; Mobile Food Pantry, monthly Food Share on wheels; and Youth Backpacks offer weekly distribution of food-filled backpacks for school-aged youths.
As with the ‘Pine River Valley, the ‘Mutual Aid’ component of PRS has also seen a marked spike in use of Bill Pay Assistance, which provides funds to help qualifying families pay for heating bills. The Freecycle ‘Thrift Store’ offers free seasonal clothing and housewares available weekly.
‘Community Building’ is a central component to all PRS’s activities. Community Meals such as potlucks and cookouts as well as Skill Shares, free presentations and workshops offering information on topics beneficial to the community, bring diverse community members together for sharing and learning.
The current ‘Youth Leadership’ project includes Youth Voice, facilitated weekly listening sessions with Ignacio High School students addressing issues important to them.
All PRS’s projects are undertaken by committed, highly engaged volunteers and staff that meet weekly to discuss and coordinate the organization’s ongoing activities. The organization utilizes the consensus model of decision-making, so the meetings are often lively with impassioned discussions.
Enduring friendships are made, and the community of service continues to grow as Pine River Shares looks forward to its next 10 years of building healthy, thriving communities in the Pine River Valley.
More information about Pine River Shares can be found at https://www.pinerivershares.org.