The mission

Hey guys, gonna get a bit real on this one. Last night I attended my 20 year high school reunion. It was wonderful. I loved seeing everyone and finding out what they have all been up to, and also sharing the farm story with them. I was actually flabbergasted at how many people not only follow our farm story but were encouraging us to keep pushing for our dream. We see ourselves most days as the weird backwoods people who are slowly trying to fight against inequality one bread loaf at a time and rarily step back to see the impact that we have on others. I was encouraged by many last night to make this post, so here it is.

We have many new followers who may not have read back to our early days of building the house and farm, back when I made a lot more political posts than I do now. Some of you may not be familiar with the mission of the farm, and because of this I need to share it more. I need to put it at the forefront of our public persona.

We have been at the bottom. We have been food insecure with small children. We have had to stand in line for community food baskets and survive on food stamps. We have had to go without food ourselves so our children could eat. We are very familiar with this process. We are also familiar with how humiliating it can be, especially when your weekly basket consists of expired food cans and boxed goods that taste like plastic. We know what it is to live in one of the poorest states in America with the highest rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. We know how it is to know that you need to eat better but not be able to afford it, while simultaneously having to listen to people tell you that it’s your fault and that poor people don’t deserve better unless they pull themselves up themselves. We had people put in our lives who gave us chances that we probably would not have been given of we had been anything but a white heterosexual couple with small children. I will never not be appreciative of those people, but at the same time I will also acknowledge the fact that not everyone will be given the same opportunities that we were.

Food accessability has always been something I have been passionate about, but after going through that ourselves we knew we needed to figure out how to make this change. So I started to research food quality and availability. For years now I have been getting books from the library, buying books, going to lectures, and talking to everyone I can to help me figure out how to solve this problem. We have a dilemma right now where the healthiest food is coming out of the small farming industry, which is also the most expensive. Next month I am subbmitting my application to a sustainability graduate program with the hope of answering this very problem. How do we bridge the gap between the local food industry and the people who can’t afford the local food industry. The CSA is our experiment to see if we can be profitable while also providing good healthy food to people who can’t afford to join other CSAs. If we can be successful this year we are not only going to expand exponentially in the following years but we are also going to add in a sponsorship program where you can sponsor a box to a family in need. We love and appreciate everyone that has supported us, and welcomed us in your lives. Hopefully in the future we can be a major change in this fight. Please keep following and share our mission with others!

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One thought on “The mission

  1. Wonderful, wonderful goals! May God bless you and prosper you in your endeavor. I know he is using you as his hands and feet, and I thank him for the dreams and heart of compassion he has given you and Chris. Keep us updated, I’d love to hear more about that sponsorship program once it is up and running.

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