Help Two Employees Purchase Kitchen Garden Farm!

Help Lilly and Max purchase Kitchen Garden Farm!

We are beyond excited for the opportunity to take over this business that we love and have poured years of work into. However, in order to do this, we need your help!

Who We Are:

We are Lilly and Max, two young farmers working to purchase Kitchen Garden Farm. We met in 2013 as students in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass, and ended up working together at Kitchen Garden Farm after graduation. We have both worked at Kitchen Garden now for almost a decade! Over these past 10 years we have taken on multiple roles at the farm, worked with amazing crews, and gained immense agricultural and managerial knowledge. We are also members of populations that are underrepresented in business ownership, and especially in farm ownership. The demographics of farmland ownership in the United States are 98% white, 80% age 55 and over, and 90% male. We are proud to break this mold by owning a farm together as a young queer female farmer and a young Asian farmer.

What is Kitchen Garden Farm:

Kitchen Garden Farm is a 65 acre organic farm in Sunderland, MA that produces fresh specialty vegetables sold throughout the Northeast, as well as a line of hot sauces and salsas that are sold nationwide. Kitchen Garden is part of an incredibly vibrant farming community in Western Massachusetts, and we are so grateful to the local businesses that have been Kitchen Garden's customers and partners for years. Our farm culture prioritizes community, from gathering every day as a crew for a farm cooked lunch, to seasonal bonfires and annual tubing trips.

Where You Come In:

This year the original owners of Kitchen Garden Farm, Tim Wilcox and Caroline Pam, decided to step away from their 18 year ownership of the farm and have asked us to carry on the business. We plan to continue Kitchen Garden’s mission to produce delicious, beautiful, and nutritious vegetables and high quality value-added products, to support land stewardship and agricultural preservation; to provide long-term, stable employment and a positive working environment for our team; and to distribute excess produce to those in need in our community.

The farm sale includes all of the business’s land, buildings, and equipment. We’re extremely grateful to Tim and Caroline for contributing a significant amount of owner equity towards the sale, making it possible for us to to acquire the business - something that is out of reach for most young farmers. Although Tim and Caroline have helped us immensely with favorable terms, the purchase of this farm remains a huge undertaking for which we are taking out extensive loans, and we are looking to raise funds to cover our sizable closing costs and the start up costs for this season (seeds, supplies, etc). Any contributions you are able to make will help us complete this sale and start our new chapter as a farm. Thank you so much for supporting this fundraiser - every little bit will make a big difference.