February 18th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

As you can see, there are changes taking place through our site and over the internet in reference to our projects. The truth is, we have to make these transitions. We hate to move, but unfortunately we found out our name is too close to a trade marked name being used.

So we will have to change the name of our program that we used last year to gather food. We don’t have a definite name as of yet, so I am open to any and all suggestions. What would YOU call a program to gather millions of pounds of food, distributing it to needy families by working together?

January 25th, 2010 by Jaime Buckley

I am visiting with Lee Bradshaw weekly and watching this incredible project grow by leaps and bounds, but not because of financial donations. No. This project thus far has grown by people being creative and donating their resources, their connections and in some cases, themselves as manpower (or ‘womanpower’).

As a husband and father of 10 (+1), the challenges today’s society throws at us are not always ones we can control. People who are in need are not usually people who refuse to work. In fact, most are hard working, loyal, tax paying, kind individuals and families who have not been able to make enough, or by circumstances, have found themselves in a dire situation. Many times it’s a choice between paying a bill or food on the table and many feel obliged to pay their debts! Think about that!!

I stopped down town Salt Lake City and watched good men, lined up in the early morning frost with bitter winds, just in the hopes of getting a bus pass so they can get to work that day.

We have resources. All of us. From money to food in our back yards, to people we know who are unaware that Care for the Children and it’s harvest projects even exists. I would implore you to tell them about this site. To tell them of the work that has been done, what is being done and what we HOPE to do this year!

Take a moment to tell someone about us. Help us grow our connections with the people of the communities, while Lee Bradshaw and his volunteers make connections with companies and government entities.

The goal is to fill every belly. Please help us do it.
Contact us and give us your ideas and support.

God Bless.
Jaime Buckley

ByHP, challenges, food, From our Friends, help, hope, lee bradshaw, resources, tbyhp

December 8th, 2009 by Lee Bradshaw

I have been asked over and over the last few days: who is The Backyard Harvest Project and who is Care for the Children?

I’ll explain.

The Backyard Harvest Project (ByHP) is a idea that has been bouncing around in my mind for at least eight years now. The idea first manifested itself when I was in the construction field and my friend James Ray and I were siding a house together.  Over the years I have done almost everything in the trades.  We were in a home owners backyard and it was about mid September.  In that backyard were a few fruit trees that, from the looks of it, hadn’t been harvested for years.  Right there we saw ripe beautiful peaches falling to the ground.  I commented that it was very sad to see, and James responded that if I could figure out a way to harvest all the food that went to waste in peoples backyard I would control the biggest orchard in the world.

Now it has never been my intention to corner the market in peaches or any other commodity, but maybe I could help stop some of the waste.

As I said, the idea bounced around, but everyone that I talked to told me that it was too big of an idea or that I needed the “perfect” business plan in place before I did anything.  Well this last spring it was really eating at me that I hadn’t done anything with this idea, when out of the blue a gentleman saw a powerpoint that I had made.  While visiting with me and walking through my families garden, he asked what, if anything, I would do differently in my own garden. Without thinking I said “nothing, I just need more space”.  He invited me to immediately follow me to his home where he showed me three building lots that he owned next to the property he lived on. He asked me “is that enough land?”.   I was speechless.

He donated the land, irrigation, fencing, and the use of his Kubota tractor. A few days later, another gentleman donated 7000 heirloom vegetable plants.

Poof!  The ByHP had grew its own legs.

The next few month were a whirlwind.  The first call I made yielded 1500 lbs. of Bing Cherries and the next one yielded 6500 lbs. of Pie Cherries.  Things happened so fast and without to much effort, put into finding the food or volunteers or families that needed the food.  Over 50,000 lbs. of food had been donated or grown from donated plants, on donated land, watered with donated irrigation.

I have never been so blessed as I have been in these last few months. I  am closer to my children, wife and friends than I ever thought possible.  Yes, financially I have done better in other ventures but I have learned that keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t all it cracked up to be.  Putting others needs first has truly blessed my life and the lives of my family.

Bing Cherries, ByHP, Cherries, commodity, donated, fruit trees, heirloom, irrigation, perfect, Pie Cherries, tbyhp, the backyard harvest project

December 1st, 2009 by Lee Bradshaw

This last week was very busy and heartbreaking.  My family has been helping a older couple clean out their food storage room.  It is huge, 21′X 16′, with cement floor, walls and ceiling.  It is amazing the time and effort these folks have gone through to be prepared in a time of emergency. It was wall to wall food.

Now here is the heartbreaking part:  As we started cleaning out this room we found that over 75% of it had to be thrown away.  There was food that was bottled in 1960.  There were 5 gallon metal buckets of honey that had rusted through the bottoms and leaked all over the floor.  Can goods that were bulging and ready to burst.

As an organization that prides our selves as saving food and not letting it go to waste, it was a sad week.  But as I told my wife, this stuff in these bottles ceased being food long ago.  Yes, they have found food stored by the Egyptians that is still edible, but this wasn’t.  Bottled food is best if used within three years.  Fpur years should be the max.  I don’t see this as a problem because we should be eating the food that we are storing. Many experts have said that storing whole wheat for the future is a grave mistake unless we start using whole wheat today to make our bread.

Now why does that make sense?  I’ll tell you why: we need to change our diet slowly starting today so that when we have to rely solely on our food storage, our bodies are used to processing it.  Otherwise, we are going to bloat up and have serious health issues when we try to force our bodies to process only whole grains.  We have conditioned ourselves to use processed garbage foods for fuel.  It’s foolishness to think we will be able to instantly convert to a higher food source without serious injury, when our systems are not acclimatized!  These whole grains are great for our bodies but it will shock our systems if we don’t change over time.

It would be my suggestion that people store what they eat and then rotate what they have stored.  And of course learn to eat good whole foods.

Egyptians, food, food storage, processing, storage, whole grains