Farmstead Cheeses & Wines, a family-owned business with stores in the Alameda Marketplace and Montclair Village, has been a beloved gathering place for wine and cheese lovers for over 23 years. We’ve built a community around authentic connections, quality products and a passion for sharing them. As the wine industry now finds itself in its most difficult times since prohibition, our stores have managed to survive by carefully cutting costs, right-sizing our portfolio, and saving each month for essential upgrades like replacing old refrigerators.

Recently, Farmstead was served a summons by a handicapped plaintiff who has filed hundreds of similar lawsuits against small, family-owned businesses. The lawsuit alleges that our website is not fully compliant with ADA accessibility requirements for blind people, which states that every image must have descriptive text in its meta data that can be read by Reader software. We had such descriptions on all the wines and cheeses in our e-commerce store, but not on all our food images and such in our blogs and elsewhere on our site.

Did they offer a chance to rectify? No, in fact their lawsuit is designed to be expensive, even so much as specifying a jury trial, so defendants decide to settle out of court because settlements are a fraction of the cost of a court battle. This situation feels like a form of highway robbery and has placed a tremendous financial burden on our loal business.

Whether you're already part of Farmstead's community or simply want to help rescue a victim of this over-reach, please consider donating something. Any amount is helpful! Your donation to this campaign will offset our legal fees, cover the cost of settlement, and ensure our website is properly remediated and audited for accessibility going forward. We wouldn't impose on our community were this lawsuit not an existential threat to our existence. Your support will help us continue serving our communities and preserve the spirit of Farmstead Cheeses & Wines for years to come. We thank you for your consideration.