Origin Story - Farm to Heart

Using Resources Existing In Our Community and Rooting Deep

On Monday, October 14, 2019, Fruit Valley Family Community Resource Center coordinator Staci Boehlke, and CSA member and farm volunteer Phyllis Chun, gathered together on the farmhouse porch at April Joy Farm.  Staci and Phyllis had come at the request of farmers April and Brad who were discouraged by the volatility of their wholesale markets which required them to take on too much financial risk and resulted in a lot of food loss.  They were interested in finding ways to build a different sort of business model, one that didn’t require so much risk and waste, and one that allowed them to live their values– the belief that all families deserve access to healthy, organic foods and a real connection to the local food system.

In less than one hour, the four had made a plan they called “20 in 2020.”  The four set a goal of raising $20,000 to cover the cost of 20 April Joy Farm CSA shares for the 2020 season.  Staci would identify families in her school to receive these free shares.  Staci agreed to ask her network and community partners with a goal of raising half the funds, and April and Brad would ask April Joy Farm patrons, family and their community, with the goal of raising the second half.    

Two days later- incredibly- Staci wrote to the farmers to say she had secured $30,000 to do this work for the next 3 years and April wrote to say she had named the initiative Farm to Heart.   

The Farm to Heart team immediately starting planning the 2020 season. By November, 2019, we were holding meetings, working with Sam Pike of the Vancouver Public Schools Foundation, engaging Hayley Pickus of Clark County Public Health to craft an effective evaluation program that centered our community needs, included creative feedback loops, and set us up for success. By January, 2020, April and Brad had also secured their goal of $10,000 due to the generosity of their CSA farm family.  With Phyllis leading the way on developing and crafting an inclusive, bilingual program, our little seed had germinated and grown into a vision of a 3 year pilot program.

From the beginning, Phyllis asked us all a crucial question:  What does success look like… for families, for FCRC’s, for donors and community supporters, and for AJF?  This question continues to be a guiding principle of our work.  We grow and change, just as our community grows and changes.   And that is the beginning of Farm to Heart.

Big Goals

1. Reduce Food Insecurity and Malnutrition

2. Minimize Resource Waste and Pollution

3. Address Community Disconnection; Increase Local Farm Viability

What does success look like?

1. Access

2. Choice

3. Dignity

4. Connection

What does success look like for April Joy Farm?  (April & Brad)

1. Gaining Traction: providing fish AND inspiring others to learn to fish

2. Viability of Market Channel (how can we keep this self perpetuating?)

3. Proving the CSA model can work for all community members

4. Transforming Waste: Resources, Labor, $$, Food

What Does Success Look Like for Our AJF Donors?  (Phyllis)

1. Breadth of Impact

2. Depth of Impact

3. Community Partnerships Leveraged (Social Mapping)

4. Stability of AJF