“Our food is our medicine”. For Rowan, healthy soil is not only making the land and animals healthier, but it also contributes to human health; by nourishing the soil, she can then provide nourishing food to others.
Nina is the full-time farm manager for Common Roots Farm, a 4.5-acre market garden farm where people with disabilities work together to grow healthy food, beautiful flowers, and build lasting friendships located in Santa Cruz, California. They will use the grant to purchase more long handled shovels, spades, metal rakes, hula hoes, a T-post pounder, wheelbarrows and gorilla carts and gorilla tubs for our farm.
Abdi Haji of Umoja Na Uhuru (“Unity and Freedom”) World Farm operates a Community Supported Agriculture program that provides fresh vegetables for 26 families in the Boise area. He received a Brighter Future Fund grant that allowed him to continue upgrading his farm by investing in multiple pieces of equipment that allow for faster hand tilling, precision seeding, and lettuce harvesting.
Carlos Aguilera and Lorena Mendoza own a 10+ acre farm that is Certified Organic by NOFA-NY Certified Organic, LLC, located in Ithaca, NY. Carlos is constructing a walk-in cooler for his farm with funding support from the Brighter Future Fund. Cold storage for crops through winter will help support their staff and family with income while ensuring access to healthy food for their CSA customers.
California Ranch at Bodega is using prescribed fires and grazing as ways to mitigate uncontrolled fires more effectively, cheaply, and in the case of grazing, create an economic benefit. Learn more and how AFT's Brighter Fund farm grant assisted in a water system to safely handle these prescribed burns.
Elaine; owner of Old Homestead Alpacas in Walla Walla deals with wind that is a significant challenge to the flower subscription that she offers from the flowers she grows. She will use the Brighter Future Fund award to put up a strong chain-link slat fence on the property line that will more effectively stop the winds.
In Northern Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Dani Fegan of Three Dogs Seed Farm is saving culturally important and climate-adapted seeds of foods, plants, and medicines for her community’s food sovereignty and security. She used the Brighter Future Fund grant money to have a groundwater well drilled on the property.
Meet Quincy with Sweet Jones Farm LLC, a family owned and operated, mixed produce Louisiana farm. They sell directly to consumers through CSA, service. Quincy is using the Brighter Future Fund award towards supporting 10 families grow their own food with raised beds, vegetable seedlings, and guidance on how to care for the plants.
Hannah and John Doyle of Boneyard Farm specialize in pastured meat, eggs, and produce. They used the funds from their New England Farmer Microgrants Program award to build a mobile poultry processing unit, which allowed them to expand their poultry operation.
Susan Mitchell is the owner and operator of Cloverleigh Farm. She began growing food as a public high school teacher, before purchasing her own property. She used the funds from the New England Farmer Microgrants Program to develop a strategic business plan for the future of her farm.
Liberation Farms is a project of the Somali Bantu Community Association. Its mission is to provide community members with access to culturally appropriate and sustainable food. Through the New England Farmer Microgrants Program, they were able to hire a consultant to assist them in their search for their first permanent farm property.
Lincoln Fishman and his partner, Hilary Costa, operate Sawyer Farm as an organic, horse-powered, no-till farm. They were awarded a 2020 New England Farmer Microgrant, which they used to purchase equipment to expand their on-farm production.