We hope that this letter finds you well in the middle of this challenging and illuminating time! We here at Agraria have been re-orienting ourselves to a reduced external schedule that is making space for internal reflection as individuals and as an organization. We are also ramping up our online education and outreach, and working with community partners to bolster local growing, a key part of community resilience.

We are celebrating our 3-year anniversary of the purchase of Agraria this spring, as well as the many accomplishments that have since been made possible through your financial and on-the-ground support. Our school programming last year brought almost 500 students and educators from nine area school districts to Agraria for field trips and teacher training. We are also the lead organization on an application for an international OPEN-IDEO Food System Vision Prize funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. We were one of the 5% of applicants to be asked to move to the second phase of the process—envisioning with our partners the development of a regenerative regional food system. And we are working with several statewide partners on Healthy Soils Legislation for Ohio, which would provide financial resources for farmers to adopt practices that build carbon in soils.

In addition to educational and regional food projects, our main focus this year is on the development of the farm and our physical structures. The Nature Conservancy will be completing the restoration of Jacoby Creek this fall. We are also working on a silvopasture project (integration of livestock and trees) through a gift from Patagonia. If funded, an EQIP application will enable us to build more hoophouses, erect external fencing, and develop several wells. Together with the organic certification of our growers, and the extension of our reforestation pilot, these projects will continue the transformation of Agraria into a model regenerative farm.

Our physical infrastructure likewise is undergoing transformation. A recent gift is enabling us to put composting toilets in the barn this spring. Another gift is allowing us to put a concrete floor in the basement of the barn—thus enabling the development of a farm store and tool library that will serve the regional community. Dave Westneat is funding the “Helen Westneat Reading Room” which will be a cutting-edge educational resource in regeneration and community resilience open for neighboring students and other researchers. On the planning board is a certified kitchen to enable us and other local farmers to develop value-added products.