Channel 4 News Washington/NBC spotlighted Red Wiggler Care Farm in a 3-minute segment on October 21, 2026. It’s Red Wiggler’s 30th year in operation; throughout that time, they’ve been employing adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) as paid agricultural workers and growing vegetables for their community. The team grows around 30,000 pounds of produce annually, and at least half goes to food banks and families in need.
Enrique Blanco, a Grower at Red Wiggler for the past three years, shares: “My favorite part is, it’s like a whole big family here. That’s what it feels like to me.”
Executive Director Kara McCall notes:
We employ between fifteen and twenty adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities each year. I believe our longest employee will hit twenty years next year. Care farming is the use of farming to promote health, wellbeing, and belonging. The idea is that we’re growing food—we’re growing certified organic vegetables—and we’re also growing as people. People are making connections—people with and without disabilities are working together on teams, learning from one another.
Watch the segment:
Red Wiggler Care Farm is a 12‑acre sustainable farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, where neurodiverse people come together to work, learn, and grow healthy food.
Their staff and volunteers cultivate vegetables and sell or donate the harvest to nourish their diverse local community. And through Red Wiggler’s Care Farming Network—their initiative to raise awareness, strengthen connections, and expand the reach of therapeutic farming—they’re building capacity for care farms everywhere. Learn more on their website.