The Land Conservancy and Providence Farm Collective (PFC) have hit the road running in 2023. The two organizations managed to reach their $2.3 million fundraising goal, which means that refugees will have a place to farm, and the refugee community will have better access to the foods that emanate from their home countries.
The success of the “Plant the Future of Farming” fundraising campaign means that PFC will be able to purchase the farmland that they have been farming in Orchard Park, while the Land Conservancy will place a conservation easement on it, keeping it farmland forever. This is a significant step towards living a better life in a new world that the refugees call “home” – a life where they are able to tend to their own plots of land, while growing the crops of their choosing. The farmland is also available to immigrant, Black, and low-income farmers, who might not otherwise have access to available farmlands.
“When we started this campaign a little more than a year ago, we understood the challenges we faced as a young nonprofit,” said Kristin Heltman-Weiss, Executive Director of Providence Farm Collective. “But we also understood that through hard work, determination, and perseverance we could and would reach our goal. We never wavered in this belief. Today, we are immensely grateful to all the incredible people who recognized the significance of our vision and supported our cause.”
It is due to the growing need for community-based agriculture, along with the ability to offer farmland protection, that the partnership between the two organizations panned out. What started off as a way for the Somali Bantu community to reconnect with fertile earth in 2017, has now reaped great rewards for refugees from multiple nations at the 37-acre farm.
Dao Kamara, PFC farmer and also their Community Engagement Coordinator, said, “Our farmers are very happy today. This success means that farmers like me, who don’t have a lot of startup funds, will now have permanent access to farmland to build farm businesses. We will always have a place where we can grow culturally relevant food, feed community members, and foster connections through shared traditions with our families.”
Nancy Smith, Executive Director of the Land Conservancy, echoed Kristin’s and Dao’s remarks. She added: “Now more than ever, we see a huge need for productive farmland so farmers can grow fresh, local food to feed their communities—and ours. Though it takes a tremendous amount of work and the incredible support of an entire community to make fundraising campaigns successful, the outcome could not be more important. This is a banner day. We firmly believe PFC is playing a vital role here in Western New York.”
Natalie Baszile of the Black Harvest Fund, the renowned author of We Are Each Other’s Harvest and Queen Sugar who visited PFC this past summer, said, “The Providence Farm Collective and Western New York Land Conservancy partnership is the best example I’ve seen of a concrete, workable solution to help Black, Immigrant, Refugee, and low-income farmers. Their work has yielded tangible results and should be a model for Land Conservancies across the country. I continue to be inspired by PFC’s vision and am honored to support them.”
For more information, visit wnylc.org and providencefarmcollective.org.
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