Consultations
The Care Farming Network provides expert advice and guidance on how to start, build, and grow a care farm. Our consultants have more than 30 years of experience in care farming leadership. We love talking to folks, whether you are in the idea phase or are an established care farm needing support with specific questions or issues.
The consultation process
Our consultation begins with a 30-minute pro-bono call where you share your ideas, we learn about your needs, and then we discuss the next steps. If there’s time and interest, Woody Woodroof, Red Wiggler’s Founder and Executive Director, will share the origin story of Red Wiggler Community Farm.
Where members require additional support, we are able to offer additional sessions at $100/ hour (a sliding scale rate may be available.) Follow-up consultations include two experienced people and an email follow-up which includes a listing of available resources. Our goal is for consultations to be accessible to all, so we do offer pro-bono calls – we do not want cost to be a barrier!
Consultations include a wide range of topics, such as:
- Care Farm Startup
- Fundraising & Grant Writing
- Program Development and Evaluation
- Operating a Successful Care Farm
- Identifying and Prioritizing Needs
- Staff and Volunteer Support
- Governance Issues
Curious to read about what a consultation looks like? Click here to read a blog post about how Care Farming Network offered support to a Texas Care Farm.
Before requesting a consultation, you may wish to explore our online resources:
- The Care Farming Network is a project of Red Wiggler Community Farm. Red Wiggler is a care farm employing people with I/DD and providing job/skill development. Red Wiggler’s website contains real-life examples of a CSA and volunteer policies.
- View a virtual tour of Red Wiggler Community Farm (28 minutes)
- Watch the “Matching Abilities to Farm Tasks” video
- Listen to the Simple Sparrow Care Farm podcast. Simple Sparrow is a Texas care farm that utilizes farm nature for educational, therapeutic, and vocational outcomes.
- Explore our online directory and map of Care Farms across the US. You can filter by type of care farm or location. Check out your state to see if there is a care farm near you.
- View our “What is Care Farming?” video- a brief overview of care farming and its benefits.
Meet our care farm consultants
Andrea Barnhart
With over 20 years experience working with non-profits and nine years of experience working at Red Wiggler Community Farm managing people with intellectual and/or developmental differences, Andrea hopes to strengthen the Care Farming movement by providing training and consultations to other care farms, sharing in their challenges and successes specifically focusing on how to integrate people of all abilities into a working care farm juggling production demands alongside of inclusion. Andrea can offer support in the areas of:
- Daily operations of a care farm: Inclusion in farm tasts
- Volunteer management
- Managing staff (of all abilities)
- Systems tracking (yields, distribution, and job skills development)
Woody Woodroof
Woody is the Executive Director and Founder of Red Wiggler Community Farm. Established in 1996, Red Wiggler is a 12-acre certified organic vegetable farm that provides meaningful employment and healthy food for adults with developmental disabilities. Woody can offer support in the areas of:
- Non-profit management
- Fundraising
- Board management
- Care farm start-up
- Identification of needs
Testimonials
Since we spoke, I was able to work with NOFA-NJ to partner with a host farm, so that I can begin to run consistent programming in one location with a consistent group of (paid) participants - your feedback directly helped me pivot in that way, and gave me the encouragement to ask for that type of support from NOFA, who immediately responded positively. They've shared an announcement through their community of thousands of readers about our partnership, and have even committed to supporting my mission to pay each worker a set hourly rate above minimum wage, plus my "healthy belly" stipend per hour to enable workers to purchase organic produce directly from the farmer we're partnering with. I'm learning that asking for big things actually works!