Our Commitment to You

March 24, 2020

A message from our executive director and board chair

Coronavirus is going to change the world. It already has. And it will change MALT, too. 

The cascading impacts of COVID-19 are too many to list, and our worries are too many and too varied to honor here in an email. 

We do not know what the future holds or what all will change. But we know that we can help MALT adapt to that change. That we can help MALT evolve and grow. And we know that we must, because we owe it to you, to this community and to this place that we all love. 

Here is our commitment to you in this uncertain time:

We will:

• Make sure that MALT protects the health of our staff and community. We are working remotely now and will continue to do so for as long as is necessary.

• Help MALT adapt to support Marin’s producers. As our food systems shift, the way foods are marketed and sold will change. And so MALT will change too, supporting our producers along the way.  

• Make sure that our land protection and stewardship work continues, even if our ranch visits can’t include long chats with our beloved landowners for the foreseeable future. We’ll learn new ways to do our work, together.

• Ensure MALT stays in close touch with our agency partners, coordinating our efforts to support Marin’s agricultural community.

• Continue to ask you, our devoted donors, to support MALT financially. What is clear to us today, more than ever before, is that secure food systems are what this world needs now. And farmland protection is an important part of creating that security. To that end, we will ask those of you who can to help us continue to protect farmland.

• Support MALT’s incredible team as they reinvent our programming and events to foster community and connection — with the land and with each other — as we shelter in place. We promise to continue to bring you together around our shared values — a love for local food, the land, community and sustainable agriculture. 

While there is uncertainty in our lives right now, there is joy too, in the rediscovery of what matters most: health, family, community, connection and wide open spaces.

We, MALT’s board and staff, promise to update you regularly as we chart our path forward. 

Yours, 
Jamison Watts, Executive Director
Neil Rudolph, Board Chair