Care Farm Happenings & Highlights
Every month, CFN is spotlighting the incredible work happening on care farms across the country. From exciting partnerships and policy recognition to groundbreaking programs and opportunities to get involved, these stories show the power of care farming in action. Read on to see how care farms are making a difference, sharing their good news, providing […]
While touring a therapy farm, I got a call that left me reeling
By Joanna Frketich I accidentally became the first client of Thistle House Care Farm. As The Spectator’s health reporter, I was in Brant County on June 16 — a beautiful blue-sky sunny day — to tour the Mount Pleasant farm that will soon provide therapeutic programs, mostly for mental health and dementia. Despite more than 25 years on the beat, I’d never […]
Rooted in Innovation: Care Farming Network and the Rise of a New Kind of Farming in America
By Kate Mudge, Co-Director, Care Farming Network In a sun-soaked field in Tennessee, a group of adults with developmental disabilities tend to rows of vegetables at Old School Farm. In Maryland, veterans recovering from PTSD care for honeybees at Mission Beelieve. At Desert Survivors in Tucson, adults with disabilities gain work experience at a native […]
Care Farms Cultivate Healing Across Delaware
Care farms provide growth and recovery through the power of nature. By Olivia Montes Ally Kennedy, founder of Grateful Acres, holds Greta, a hen who lives on the farm. Photographs by Angie Gray. Off a busy Delaware highway, down a gravel road, and just beyond a blooming green meadow stands a barn. If […]
Old School Farms is harvesting hope with therapeutic farming!
Photojournalist Nathan Sharkey takes us to Old School Farms! The non-profit uses therapeutic farming practices and employs adults with developmental disabilities, known as “mission farmers,” who grow, harvest & deliver produce to food insecure communities in Nashville. The farm provides a supportive work environment where everyone feels comfortable and can learn about organic, regenerative agriculture. […]
Bridging the gap: Expanding opportunities for employees with disabilities alleviates shortages
By Sloane M. Perron In a world of workforce shortages and competitive job markets, companies are developing creative hiring strategies and looking at untapped talent pools. Through technology and companies actively seeking to diversify their workforces, more work opportunities are being crafted for individuals with disabilities. According to Maine’s Department of Labor, 16% of working-age […]
CFR DONOR SPOTLIGHT: RED WIGGLER CARE FARM
For March’s blog, we reached out to our contact at Red Wiggler Care Farm, Rachel Armistead. Red Wiggler has been a member of Community Food Rescue since 2016 and has donated 22,732lbs (18,943 meals) since then. Read on to hear what Rachel shared with us. “Red Wiggler Care Farm, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit here in Montgomery County, […]
At Plant For A Change, all people, regardless of ability, work side-by-side
Nashville’s News Channel 5 profiled Plant For A Change, a Tennessee-based employer empowering an inclusive and accessible conservation workforce through cultivating native habitats with keystone plants.
Re-Creating the “Asylum Farm”
Today’s state hospital patients sit idle on massive grounds designed to sustain meaningful work. Author: John Hirschauer Though it’s often said that America “closed the asylums” in the twentieth century, every state still operates at least one public mental institution. These facilities, called state hospitals, are the last stop on each state’s continuum of care […]
Fertile Ground for Inclusivity: Differently Abled Adults Discover Farming
As you leave the two-lane highway to enter the graveled road that leads to the 12-acre Red Wiggler farm, an eastern towhee darts across your path and the wilderness opens on your left. Then the large red barn comes into view. To your right lies the heartbeat of the farm, the multipurpose building where the […]