Volunteers gather on a vast, green farm striped with rows of fresh crops. From field preparation to spreading compost, they work to get the farm ready for the upcoming season.
The nonprofit Lexington Community Farm, known as LexFarm, aims to foster connection between the land and the community. At a time when gas prices and inflation are driving up food prices, it also works to keep fresh, healthy food accessible to community members.
LexFarm’s land has been farmed for over 400 years. The last family, the Busa family, farmed there for around 90 years and then sold it to the town of Lexington 13 years ago. The Select Board voted to keep it as a community farm and allocated half an acre to affordable housing.
Since then, the farm’s organizers have worked to build community through classes, events, their volunteer program, a summer CSA, affordability initiatives and more.
“The farm is situated in a fairly affluent community, but not everyone has those same resources, so we want to make sure we can reach as many different people as we can,” Mark Gabrenya, president of LexFarm, said.
The community farm has faced a new challenge recently. As gas prices have risen, delivery fees have climbed — in some cases by as much as 50%.
“We have some buffer in the budget. We always do that to make sure that if prices and expenses go up, we have some way of dealing with that. In the case of the farm store, we’ve increased our prices to reflect the increase that we’re getting,” Pam Tames, the executive director of LexFarm, said.
This increase comes on top of prices that are already high compared to typical grocery stores. To ensure that residents can still shop at the farm, LexFarm introduced a SNAP match program three years ago, which continues to this day. When participants in the SNAP program spend at least $10, they get a free $10 to match, Tames explained. Last year, the farm matched $18,000. When the federal government cut SNAP for about a month and a half last year, the farm was able to raise the SNAP benefit from $10 to $20.
In addition to the match program, LexFarm will be offering tiered pricing for food in the fall. Tier B is the standard price, Tier A is above the standard price, and Tier C is below.
“The idea is that people will contribute as they can, and then people who are in need will benefit from that,” Tames said.
This will be the second year for the tiered pricing model in children’s education classes.
“We want a more diverse group of people, we want to include people who ordinarily wouldn’t be included, we want to give educational opportunities for people who otherwise wouldn’t afford these anyway,” Tames said.
The farm’s impact extends beyond Lexington, with donations to Food Link in Arlington and Arlington EATS, in addition to the Lexington Food Pantry.
Gabrenya also said the farm educates the community on where their food comes from.
“There’s a big difference between going out in the field and helping to plant something or to weed a row of crops and going to the grocery store and going to the produce aisle,” he said.
Most support for the farm comes from individual and corporate donations, as well as through foundations and some government agencies. Their fundraising has increased by 10% to 15% a year, Gabrenya said.
Gabrenya and Tames said part of what makes LexFarm special is their sense of community.
“If you came in and you looked at the farm stand, for example, you would hear people talking to each other. You would hear that the farm stand manager knows most of the people that come in and people are sharing recipes. It’s just a very welcoming and warm place,” Tames said.