Dear readers,

We hope you’ll think of Civil Eats in your year-end giving.

This has been a big year for us. After our successful Kickstarter campaign late last year, we brought on a paid managing editor, started paying our contributors, and expanded our readership. We were named the James Beard Foundation’s 2014 Publication of the Year and two of our stories were included in Best Food Writing 2014. We’re also reaching more people than ever thanks to our new media partnerships with TIME.com, Harvest Public Media, and Bay Area Bites.

In the last year alone, we’ve published over 250 original articles and worked with a wide array of new and established writers. We’ve dispelled food waste myths, taken a close look at Toledo’s water crisis, investigated right-to-farm amendments, reported on an unexpected connection between BPA and fast food, found holes in McDonalds’s transparency campaign, broke news about salmon fed GMO yeast, and taken an in-depth look at California’s humane egg battle.

We’ve also reported on lots of good news. With funding from the Food + Farming Communications Fund, we created a new series called the Good Food Vanguard and have reported over 40 stories about encouraging and successful efforts to change the food system. We’ve celebrated Brazil’s new dietary guidelines, reported on the rise of suburban agrihoods, the nation’s largest rooftop farm, and projects to incubate food businesses and distribute fresh food in Detroit. We’ve also heard from authors and chefs who inspire us. And we told those of you who want to change the food system where to start.

It’s been quite a year, but we need your help to continue covering the essential stories about the food on your plate. Please consider including Civil Eats in your year-end giving. Your tax-deductible gift will cover: