On this episode of Policy Outsider, Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy Deputy Director & Intergovernmental Liaison Guillermo Martinez leads a conversation with leaders in the Providence Farm Collective, a non-profit organization in Western New York with a mission of cultivating farmer-led and community-rooted agriculture and food systems to actualize the rights of under-resourced peoples.
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Joel Tirado 00:05
Welcome to Policy Outsider presented by the Rockefeller Institute of Government. I’m Joel Tirado. On this episode of Policy Outsider, Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy Deputy Director & Intergovernmental Liaison Guillermo Martinez leads a conversation with leaders in the Providence Farm Collective, a non-profit organization in Western New York with a mission of cultivating farmer-led and community-rooted agriculture and food systems to actualize the rights of under-resourced peoples. That conversation is up next.
Guillermo Martinez 00:55
Welcome back to policy outsiders today, we’re honored to bring to you a very special episode from moacher Park New York, where we spotlight the remarkable work of the Providence farm collective, a bold community rooted initiative that’s connecting new Americans and new entry farmers to land culture and opportunity. Providence farm collective was founded with a powerful vision to empower immigrants and refugee farmers by giving them access to farmland resources and market pathways so they can grow the food of the heritage, sell their products locally and support food security systems like food banks in the larger community. In short Providence, farm Collective is building bridges between cultures, between urban and rural populations, between farmers and consumers and between local economies. In today’s conversation, you’ll hear from two members of the leadership team behind the collective, we will explore how the farm has taken what is often a deeply personal practice, growing food from one’s homeland, and turning it into more than just a means of livelihood for New Americans, but into a vehicle for social impact, close, cultural dialog and community resilience. We have two amazing guests today, Kristin Hoffman, wise, Executive Director of the Providence farm collective, and Hamadi Ali, Deputy Director of the Providence farm collective. Kristin has taught English research skills in writing at SUNY Buffalo Canisius College in Williamsville, North High School, prior to founding the buffalo education therapy, where for 12 years she provided intensive, individualized academic intervention for children, adolescents and adults with learning differences in 2020 Kristen was appointed executive director of Providence. Walk collected. She has shared her time and skills as a volunteer throughout her life. From 2016 to 2020 she provided academic support and advocacy for children at the Somali Bantu community organization of Western New York after school program. In 2017 in partnership with the Somali Bantu leadership, she was a founding member of the Somali Bantu Community Farm, and in September 2019 the group formed the Providence farm collective as a not for profit. Ahmadi Ali resettled in the US in 2004 and started his academic journey by joining Erie County Community College. After two years, he transferred to Buffalo State College, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in economics, and then went on to the University at Buffalo where he obtained his master’s in economics. For over 17 years, Hamadi worked as a residential habilitation aide. However, his passion for community development and farming led him to become the board president of the Somali Bantu community organization of Buffalo. He later became founding member of the Somali Bantu Community Farm, which ultimately grew into the farm Providence, farm collective. He leads educational workshops on markets and business development at the collective. His interest in farming stems from his family’s agrarian tradition, and he is committed to promoting access to traditional fresh and healthy food.
Guillermo Martinez 03:56
But before we go into today’s discussion, I want to share a short audio segment from Providence farm collective video which captures the spirit and mission of your work.
Video Narration 04:09
Something special is happening on Burton Road in Orchard Park, New York,
Video Narration 04:15
members from 11 diverse communities have come together to grow healthy, nutritious foods for all of us in Western New York, it is where farmers envision Food and Farm systems that are equitable, resilient and sustainable.
Video Narration 04:29
This is Providence farm collective.
Video Narration 04:33
My community, the Somali bantles, have a background in agriculture. Since childhood, I’ve seen my grandparents, great, great parents, and my parents farming. And after the Civil War broke out in Somalia, we fled to Kenya. We were refugees, and then, luckily, we got research ordered into. Us in 2004 and when we came to the States, I’ve seen my dad in the kitchen complaining about the food that we had in the kitchen, and His concern was that wasn’t food. The pasta wasn’t food, cereal wasn’t food. There were a bunch of things that to him, wasn’t food or wasn’t real food.
Video Narration 05:22
When when you move you come in here, it’s kind of a little tough if you don’t have no guide. Somebody could guide you. But why now PFC, it become like a home for the new American who are coming here and they have a background for farming. So this is could be like their home
Video Narration 05:40
at PFC, farmers know the importance of fresh foods and farmland access to the physical and mental well being of families and individuals across western New York here, farmers and their families grow traditional foods and celebrate their agriculture heritage through programs that empower both farmers and consumers,
Video Narration 06:00
this remind our you know, all day when you go to the farm with the family, it reminds me
Video Narration 06:09
that my mom actually came here like 1920 years ago. So she’s been in America for a long time, away from her home. So it kind of gives her that sense of home and keeps her close to her identity, and keeps me close to her identity as well,
Video Narration 06:23
because a lot of us come to the States not knowing one another. You know, apart from we come from one community, and that’s it. And then we meet here, and we start speaking. We share our experiences. We as, oh, we all have common experiences. We actually all almost belong together. To anyone just passing around, PFC is a farm, but personally to me, PFC is not a farm. It’s almost like a home.
Guillermo Martinez 06:55
The audio of the video we just heard encourage our listeners to become more active, and we encourage our listeners to go to your website and watch the full video. It’s about seven minutes, very powerful, moving images of the power of your organization and what you’re doing to build community. Kristin, can you walk with us through the oranges of the Providence farm collective? How did it evolve from the Somali Bantu Community Farm pilot in 2017 and become a nonprofit that it is today.
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 07:26
So the Somali Bantu Community Farm was actually born out of, like, true grassroots initiative, and Hamadi can talk a little bit more about, like, really, the roots of the search for farmland. I came into it like 13 years after that. You know, after Hamadi had been trying to find farmland access, and I came into it as a friend and a fellow community member, and also just as a person who recognizes that well, especially for New Americans, folks are resettled into uncertainty, not really knowing how to access resources, not necessarily having a network of people to tap into, to help navigate things. And I, you know, as any friend would do, was kind of like, Oh, I’ve got that network. Oh, I think I can find that resource for us and and that’s how we we started the farm. Was an effort to do that, to bring community together. But you know what? Within a couple months of founding the Somali Bantu Community Farm, I had phone calls from people in the resettled refugee community in Buffalo saying, Are you the lady who gets people farmland? We want farmland too. How can we do this? And at that time, I had joined my husband and I both had joined this, the board of the Somali Bantu community organization. And we, we we had talked about the farm actually becoming something bigger, bringing in more people. And again, I feel like that part of the story is best told through Hamadi, but, but we did become committed to doing that, and during the first two years, especially of the Somali Bantu community farm, we became students of our local, regional food and agriculture systems, trying to understand the challenges and the needs in the community. Community, but also we reached out across the country, across North America, to learn about the different food and ag programs that were already out there. You know, why? Why should we try to reinvent the wheel if they’re already really good programs? And I think one of the most important things I learned from that period was to ask the question, what, what did you do that you wouldn’t have done? Because I think it actually prevented us from stepping into areas just to kind of chase funding that weren’t going to be helpful in the end. So, you know, with that in mind, we started to put together the idea that became Providence farm collective, which we ended up forming in September of 2019,
Guillermo Martinez 10:56
thank you, hamadia, as a founding member of the Somali Bantu community farm that evolved into the Providence farm collective. Collective. Can you share your personal journey from Somalia to the United States and how access to farmland through this initiative helped you reclaim your agriculture roots and build community? Sure.
Hamadi Ali 11:15
So I am originally from Somalia, but I have very vague recollection of how Somalia was, because I left as a young boy. You know, Somalia just went into the civil war in 1991 and as soon as the war started, my family and many others fled into other countries, seeking refuge, and my family went to Kenya. In Kenya, we were put in a refugee camp in the coastal region of Kenya, very fertile land, if you almost grow anything there. And in that refugee camp, the Somali Bantu and many of the refugees were accommodated food, or rations, rather, by the UN and the Somali Bantus particularly, weren’t happy receiving handouts, receiving the rations. The pair of my parents and the rest of the elders in the community start complaining, saying that this is not our way of life. Our way of life is, you know, growing our own food. How do we get back to that? And they start going into the hosting of the local communities, looking for farmland. And the communities there were very friendly, and almost linguistically we understood each other. So it was easy for the banters, you know, to get land and grow what they wanted to grow. But as a young man, it surprised me. I was like, Okay, if you are getting anything for free, someone is handing out to you, why would you want to produce it yourself? Back then, I didn’t understand the concept of, you know, self reliance, first, board the refugee camp was closed down, and the Somali Bantus and the refugees were taken into Northwestern Kenya, very dry land, where you it’s hard to grow anything. But again, if Bantus found ways to grow some certain things, like okra, collard greens, and in that refugee camp, also the bands will start looking for opportunities to resettle into western countries. That went on took about over a decade, and eventually we were starting to resettled in the US and my family particularly, was resulted in the US in 2004 and when we got into the US the very night or the very morning we got here at night, go into the morning. Well, that morning, my parents went in the kitchen, and the first thing I heard from them was a complaint about food, saying that there wasn’t food in the house. And I remember very well that night, when we arrived, we were shown the kitchen or the pantry by the caseworker or the person who brought us into the house, like, this, is this? This is bread, this is that rice? What not? And I remember, I’m like, Okay, I saw all those food last night. Did somebody rob the house? The house wasn’t robbed. Everything was intact. But my parents weren’t familiar with the food that we had, apart from the beans and the rice, everything else to them was just not familiar to them. So my father calls and well, I was standing next to him. He started talking. He’s like, look, I gave you two options to tell the caseworker when she gets here that either she finds us food that we recognize, or she can take us back to the refugee camp she got us from. Now. Now to me, those are two very, you know, tough statements from my father. The caseworker ends up coming. I explained to the caseworker, she was generous enough. She started getting us the food that were familiar to us. That wasn’t enough. There was a whole community. This was my parents. We start growing, you know, in the backyard, we had a Well, we started getting the food. And then eventually I approach our landlord, because I realized the food was too expensive, organic and fresh food very expensive. We couldn’t afford it on ourselves. So I approached our landlord that if we could grow food in the backyard. The landlord also was very generous. He allowed us, showed us the way, what to do and what not to do in the backyard, and we started growing our own food. But the food was only enough for our family. We have other family members, you know, cousins, uncles, coming and seeing that. And the sentiment was that, how can we make this big. How do we get back to our roots? We were brought here. This was not part of our culture. Yes, we wanted to come here, but this is not us. How do we get back to our roots? To me that at first it seemed like it was impossible, but again, people insisted, this can be done. We should do it. Should go out and ask people, How can we get farmland? So with the help of elders, myself and other people, we formed the Somali Bantu community organization of Buffalo. And when the organization was formed, the three main priorities were how to keep our traditions educating our young ones, and how do we get back to our roots that being agriculture, growing stuff for ourselves and for our self sufficiency. Started the organization, and we right away, started approaching anyone we thought could help us, especially in blind access and not knowing the politics of land access of the US. So we start going around the city of Buffalo asking. And we received what we call the polite Yes, we will help, but to no avail. So we keep going, and we had our after school program. With that after school program, the space that we were in was very tiny, and one day, just like a dream, we saw, I don’t know how many, but there was some nuns walking on the street, you know, and we approach them, you know, talking to them, and they end up offering us their church space or retirement space, rather, to, you know, held our after school program. We start working with those nuns, and also the nuns, you know, they had the connection, the network of people. So they start linking us with other folks. They start bringing students from colleges to volunteer at our school program help us. You know, students learn and whatnot. So at that after school program had, what happened is, there was this young man who was volunteering a very young, can’t remember the age, about 15 or 16 years old, and his time to volunteer was coming to an end, but he took it upon himself, approached his mom and told his mom that there was a community that he was volunteering at, and the mom, being a professional teacher, can Help. So the mom is Kristen, I’m talking about here. And Kristin ends up coming out to the center, and she sees, you know, what we needed. She ends up becoming a volunteer herself there, working with us. And while volunteering, you know she does. She indicated earlier, decides to join the Somali banter community board. And, you know, she start learning about us, asking questions, how can I help? What can I do? And at first we thought it was the typical, you know, core ideas, says and whatnot. Kristen eventually ends up inviting us to her house in the store. A lot of us came to the house. We had potluck, and you know, Kristen, way along with her friends, say that if land access was the issue, they can help, but nothing was promised. But you know, they can help first, forward, I don’t recall how long it took us, but within waves, Christine found some land in East Aurora, and she calls us and to the Hey, friends. Always refers us as friends. I found something so we come out to East Aurora. We found it was a horse pasture. It, and Kristen that wasn’t enough, but she just wanted us to have something, and she asked us, Hey, friends, is this what you’re looking for? Do you like it? And we like no, we actually don’t like it. We love this. You know, this is what we wanted all along, regardless of how we look. This is what we have been looking for. So in 2017 we started the Somali Bantu Community Farm in East Aurora. And to the Bantu, this was everything about America. Yes, people come here for many reasons, but to the Bantus, this is a dream come true. And from the oldest in the community to the youngest we, you know, come to the farm and start farming. But as soon as the farm started, the smiley bouncer Community Farm, other refuge and immigrant communities start coming out, as Kristen indicated earlier, asking if they could join. So it wasn’t just the bounce was actually looking for farmland. It was a lot of the communities. Is just that everyone was working in their own, different ways. So that’s how the farm started, and
Guillermo Martinez 21:06
thank you for that recap. Yeah, amazing story of how social bonds were strengthened with this one idea, and to see the progress that you’ve made is tremendous. Kristen, what is the core mission of the Providence farm collective in cultivating farmer led and community rooted out of agriculture.
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 21:26
So our mission has, I like to say two arms to it. One is it addresses the food security. I should say insecurity in our region, there’s high levels of food insecurity in Western New York, but especially on the east and west sides of Buffalo, and that’s where most of our farmers live. So that’s you know, for most the Somali Bantu, we’re interested in doing that, as were the other groups, our founding groups, and then the other was the idea that folks actually come from agrarian backgrounds, from rural communities in their home countries, and resettlement in the US has been really hard, as far as you know, that they’re often resettled in some of our poorest urban neighborhoods. And the idea is, okay, we’re going to get you into a factory job, or, you know, some other job that really isn’t necessarily what what folks want to do. And I think what probably is even more important to consider is when people are resettled in the US, into an urban setting, when they’re used to farming, they’re used to being active, they’re used to living in such a way where they’re eating fresh foods every day. It doesn’t take long before negative health impacts start happening, and that was something that that the Somali Bantu experience. So like addressing that need to get their elders back out working the land, feeling productive, like they’re contributing to the community and their families, taking care of just the health, the wellness of the community, both physically but also spiritually, And that food is such an important part of culture tradition, and you know what we share every day with each other, that that was the one arm, and then the second arm was access to farmland to start small farm businesses. Our farmers come with their own customer base, most of them and their folks within their communities, and just being able to have land and access to resources to to, you know, produce the food and then sell the food has been very empowering for people. And in Western New York, you know, we have this other issue, and this really isn’t unique to us, but in Erie County, we’ve lost 40% of our farmland to development, even though we’ve had, like, a population that’s actually gotten smaller, and what it’s happened is it’s actually made our region more impoverished as far as food access goes, because it’s moved our food production further from our population center, and that is. Is another part of what we do. We have the only incubator farm program west of Ithaca in New York State. Incubator farm program, meaning that we train our farmers who are in that program for three years and how to grow and develop a small farm business. And so that’s another really important piece of what we do. And then I guess the third part of it, too would be bridging that gap between it’s on the backs of American farmers that we all get fed, and often that’s not sustainable. Farmers actually barely earn a living. And so we try to make sure that we are paying farmers fairly aggregate aggregating their produce, and then we have 15 food pantries that we donate that produce to. And I think that that whole kind of grassroots, led programming that we do where our farmers say, like, this is what we need, this is what we want, we’ve built this shared leadership model where it’s somebody who is Buffalo born like me partnering with Hamadi to deliver truly these programs that have impact in our region.
Guillermo Martinez 26:33
Yeah, thank you for that. Kristen, earlier you identified, you mentioned the issue of identifying skills, and then you just mentioned the concern of loss of farmland commercial development. So one would think that would what’s been estimated to be maybe 2 million acres of farmland going idle in New York State, that the availability of farmland would be easy to come by. But that’s not what you’re seeing, is it? No
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 26:59
and in fact, we so we own our farm. It’s 37 acres in Orchard Park New York, about 25 minutes outside of Buffalo. Very expensive land. Even though there’s no homestead on this land, it was very expensive to buy, and that’s because of the huge development pressure around here, it’s the home of the Buffalo Bills Orchard Park New York. So there’s a lot of development in this area. And what’s happened is, you know, new entry farmers, they that across the country, they’re the number one barrier is access to affordable farmland, and the second is access to capital, and that’s just for farming in general. And so it’s not just Refugee and Immigrant farmers who are having these challenges. It’s actually all beginning emerging farmers. And what’s more difficult is in many rural communities, farmers, they don’t necessarily have a succession plan. Their children don’t want to farm. They don’t want to take over the land or the business, and a lot of that is just because of the economics of it. It’s a really hard life, and so they are under pressure to actually sell that land to make a profit, because that land, that farm, is actually their retirement plan. So if finding a way also to help farmers or farmland owners, connect with new entry farmers and build that bridge. Work with land trust to make that purchase, that transaction, more affordable, is another thing that we do. We’re part of American Farmland Trust, farmland for a new generation program. We’re a regional navigator, so we’re trying to help build those connections. And we first trying to help our farmers think about next steps and build relationships within the community for them to find farmland and transition to it, if that’s a goal of theirs.
Guillermo Martinez 29:28
Thank you. So Kristen, what what do you think local governments and the state government could do to look at the model that you’ve created and amplify
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 29:38
I think the number one thing that government could do is actually expand the definition of farm operation at the state level. So we are a collective of farms, and when we moved to Orchard Park, we actually went through a pro. Longed battle with the town of Orchard Park, first to get a building permit, but next to actually access public water, which abuts our property. We actually own property in the water district, but because we were not covered under that traditional farm operation definition, we did not have the support of the Department of Ag and Markets to actually find an expedient remedy to the situation. So we ended up having to sue the town of Orchard Park for the water access. And in the end, what we asked for initially, which was to sign of an out of district water agreement to build the pipe through our own property to our barn. We ended up getting that, but it was a whole year later, and it was a lot of money invested in legal fees. So it’s, I think, like for any farmer that might be farming less traditionally, so maybe in a co op, maybe in a community farm situation, a nonprofit farm, a collective of farms, even urban agriculture, all of these different ways of organizing and producing food as we move into the future, need to be protected in order to feed people in our communities.
Guillermo Martinez 31:33
Thank you for sharing that Christian I think it’s definitely some good ideas that came out what you just mentioned that could be acted on to new policies to strengthen your work. Hamadi, it’s impressive impacts of what the Providence farm collector has been doing, supporting 200 farmers across 30 farms, donating 14,000 pounds of produce and more. How has Providence farm collector contributed to reducing food insecurity while strengthening some social ties in your community.
Hamadi Ali 32:05
So a couple of things. When I became the markets manager, the whole PFC team you know, came up with the idea of having a food or aggregation for food pantries. And what PFC did then is to raise funds to purchase the produce at, you know, fair price from the farmers, and then donate to various food pantries in Buffalo. So we partnered with some food pantries. And then we aggregate the produce here, and then just every say, Tuesday, Wednesday, deliver it these food pantries. With that the farmers again on second point, also start asking questions like, Hey, we are growing food, but we want this food to get into the community, but also, you know, selling it, but having our own market. You know, of you know, our friends, our neighbors, accessing this food. We grow here. What do we do? It’s like, hey, the best idea is to start our farmers market. So PFC again, in 2022 two started a farmers market on the west side of Buffalo, where it’s described as a food desert, and started a farmers market there, what, four years ago, and it has been going strong since then, and It has brought the entire neighborhood in the west side, come and shop at the market every Saturday morning into the afternoon.
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 33:50
And I want to add to like Hamadi has been really thoughtful about the food pantries that Providence farm collective donates to, because I think that that has actually built connection across urban and rural communities in our region. So for example, one one of the food pantries is more rural. It’s not very far from where we’re located, for us to be able to build a relationship with folks in that community is really important. So it’s one of those ideas of, you know, we embrace the idea that everybody eats and we are really only as strong as we can be when we’re all working together to meet those needs for one another.
Guillermo Martinez 34:50
Excellent points in terms of what your work has done to build foster inclusivity and economic self reliance, fund the resource communities and. Your Community. A follow up question to Hamadi is, the products that are grown, are they very specific based on the needs of the immigrant farmers? And if they are, how do you bridge bringing those products to market?
Hamadi Ali 35:17
Well, yes, so again from the previous question, one thing I forgot mentioned also, we have our CSA here. It has been going actually very strong. We have 85 members CSA only starting with 18 members within four or three years. It has grown so to your question. Now, with our CSA, when we the farmers here, some farmers grow things specifically from their home countries. And people here might not be familiar with those produce or products. What we do? We find recipes, and then we introduce this right? We give these recipes to folks who are interested in trying new things. And also people just grow things to, you know, grow things. For example, I’ve never known what a tomatillo is until, you know, I start working with problems from collective and people start growing tomatillos. And I didn’t know what community consumed the tomatillos, but when I started going to the various food pantries and delivering to them, some people keep asking for certain, you know, produce. They’re like, Hey, can you keep bringing the tomatillos? And if you bring tomatoes, make sure you have jalapenos and cilantro. So I was like, Okay, I divide these folks, this is what they prefer. And I tell the farmers, okay, if you grow this, actually, there is a market for this. And then some markets, some communities, you just go they prefer certain things, and so that you tell folks, we grow amaranth. Amaranth is very similar to spinach. A lot of Americans aren’t familiar with amaranth, but when I take it to the food pantries, I take a recipe and give it, you know, the food pantry, like, here’s a recipe, here’s how you use this. African eggplants. The same thing. A lot of people don’t know what an African eggplant is, but if you provide that with a recipe and how it is used, then people definitely get to know how to use it.
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 37:12
But we also have some of our farmers who they might grow only amaranth thing and and African eggplant. I do want to talk about condolee A little
Hamadi Ali 37:25
Yeah. So we have one incubator farmer, and he has developed his own market where he actually doesn’t now rely on Providence farm collective to sell for him, he specifically grows to those products, African eggplants and Avalanche. And he has his own market. He knows who he’s growing for and
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 37:46
and he’s wildly successful. So
Guillermo Martinez 37:49
yeah, that’s great. That’s great to hear. Earlier, Hamada, you mentioned your connection with the nuns and how that opened up an avenue for progress. And Kristen, you mentioned the land trusts. So my question next is, how has Providence farm collective working in Orchard Park promoted social cohesion by bringing together diverse groups local residents to share in your agriculture efforts. Any other examples you could show or tell us?
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 38:18
Yeah, I would say probably the most important or impactful community building tool that we have used is sharing a meal the potluck, right? So I mean, smiley Bantu farm was founded at a potluck dinner every day we have a lunch program at the farm, because most of our 200 farmers here, they come here at their own expense, between often low paying jobs to grow food at Providence farm collective. And so we started a lunch program because a lot of folks they were actually in between the job of farming and then heading off to their other job. So we eat lunch together five days a week here, and it’s over that shared meal that we really get to know each other, we find we have way more in common than not. And if you’re a visitor at the farm Guillermo, if you’re ever in Orchard Park visiting us, you are welcome at our table too. So a lot of times there will be people from the neighborhood here or visitors from our partner organizations, and that it’s all very intentional. I think it’s just really important one that the people are actually here at the farm and they’re seeing like how their food is grown. We use organic practice. Says we grow sustainably. I think about monoculture, for example, that we are not that in a million ways, we’re not that we grow 58 varieties of vegetables here we use cover crops. Our soils are, you know, active, diverse, healthy, and I think it’s the same for like, the meals that we share and the people who we are. It’s that diversity all of us come in together, and, you know, kind of sharing our love for farming and most of all, for food, that has really helped to build a connection. And again, it’s been remarkable for me to see the honesty that happens over those meals, as far as well. I’m really sorry I had no idea about this, but you’ve taught me this, and I think that’s another really important part of what we do, even our our governance, our leadership, it’s all based in humility. I you know, not thinking that you have the answer, but together, we can come up with something, you know.
Guillermo Martinez 41:19
Thank you for sharing that, hamani, in your work with the other immigrant groups, any language barrier issues in terms of communicating some of the technical issues to, let’s say, become an organic farmer, or the way the right way to grow this or to improve growing product. ABC, how does that come about? Any special obstacles or a way to overcome that that you’ve had to employ.
Hamadi Ali 41:46
So the right person to tell that would have been more, as Kristen always tells it, so more is the farm mentor here, and myself and others coming to a new country. And, you know, back home, we only had maybe two seasons where, you know, okay, this season I’m going to grow okra, this season I’m going to grow that. And that’s the end of it. There wasn’t saying tipping requirement or anything. I come into the states, in particular here in Buffalo, like frost will kill certain plants. So when we started farming, we just thought, you could grow anything. And the first experience, we had trainers from Cornell Cooperative come here and train us some things they were saying, We never have expression of words for it. And then we start learning. Oh, so if we are to farm here. This is what we need to grow at this time of the year. This you can grow at all. And if you grow it, then you just need to move to Florida and maybe to grow it. So all of those things we came to learn here in terms of language barriers. Yes, the there is a language barrier. But as Christine mentioned during lunch, we have a phrase he actually we use. We call it Meza Yes, is the table of conversation, and sometimes you will meet a Burmese sitting with a Somalian, and both don’t speak English to a level where they will understand one another about somehow we hold our conversations, and we do talk on various topics a lot of people. It’s surprising, but that’s how we came to kind of, you know, be
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 43:29
together, yeah, and then for the the technical end of things, we do have staff members who speak the languages of our farmers. They’re from our farm communities. So I that that’s another thing, you know, it’s, again, that partnership idea. I I know very little about farming. I’ve learned it all thanks to Hamadi all these years, right? But, um, but I know like how to organize things and, you know, bring people together. And so when we work together in that way, when he when Mo and Hamadi work with Beth to deliver the education to the farmers, they’re able to do it within the language and cultural context. Liz is our Community Engagement Coordinator. She’s from the Burmese community. She speaks Burmese Karen and Karenni. She also helps our farmers from those communities be able to understand and, more importantly, participate. We have a farmer Advisory Committee, and they consist of at least two members from every community that farms here, and it is there that we run our ideas past. You know that this governance doesn’t happen without that committee. So I that’s another really. Important part about this idea of how you build community, and build a community where everyone can participate,
Guillermo Martinez 45:10
very well structured and creative of set of programs that you’ve built there and mechanisms to help everybody succeed. Christian Hamadi, a question on, I guess to both of you, what are some upcoming initiatives at the Providence final collective that aim to further your work on community building, community resiliency and sustainability, anything in the future that’s in the that’s in the pipeline? I think
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 45:39
the the next big thing for us is we, this past year, went through the creation of a farmland access strategic plan, and that was assessing our incubator farm program and making sure that we were building building into it, Like all the important things needed for our farmers to access and transition to land, and so that’s also like building up partnerships, helping our farmers build community connections with folks in local government, local businesses, and it’s a lot so we, we’ve done that work. We, you know, we’re finishing up writing up the plan right now. I am happy to share it with anybody if they want to email me at info at Providence, from collective.org probably in December, it’ll be ready. But I mean that that is really important, and you’re right with 2 million acres of farmland in transition, actually having an incubator program with a strategy for getting the graduates to access farmland is is essential. So we’re hoping to be able to do that. I think what’s really challenging is this moment that we’re in right now. We actually received termination of a USDA grant for having dei programs, and that has actually put our program and others like ours at risk. So, you know, we’re doing this really good work. We have this next step already worked out, but without funding, without that partnership of the social contract, I don’t know what we do. So we are also in this interesting space of creating multiple scenario budgets, and like every other nonprofit trying to figure out those things too.
Guillermo Martinez 47:52
Oh yeah, thank you for sharing that. Kristen, and I know there’s a few legislators that are working on creating a program, a state funded program to fill in that gap, and they’re aiming at next year’s budget, hopefully raising, bringing in $30 million through the State Ag and market so department to help fill in that gap and freezing federal funds. But it’s yet to be seen if that’s going to if that’s going to happen, a follow up question to Hamadi, all your work since 2004 academic background, you bring all this experience together and your love for farming, how do you see other immigrant groups kind of capitalizing on that, on what you’ve done, and maybe expanding outside of the Orchard Park area, if they if they’re looking to leave or because they have opportunities for farm in other parts of the state. Are you seeing that kind of initiative, or folks just feel safe where they are right now, you created a perfect haven for for your farming operation, what are you seeing as taking shape?
Hamadi Ali 49:06
Well, actually, the folks here are comfortable being here, but we’ve seen some folks who have came together and try to form cooperatives, and, you know, move outside of PFC, but with the support of PFC, we have various farmers, actually from Congo, and I think Burundi that came together and trying to explore and how they can, you know, access land elsewhere. And also, this year, we one of our incubator farmers from the Congo, mister condolo makongo has launched his own farm in the city of Buffalo and one acre farm where he fully, you know, works on his own. He’s comes here for consultants with PFC us here this morning, actually. And other than that, he handles his own farm. Outside of Pfc.
Guillermo Martinez 50:02
Thank you. Thank you. Kristen, for listeners inspired by your by the work of the Providence farm collective, how can they get involved support your mission to build more inclusive farmer led communities. What would you like to share with them? I
Kristin Heltman-Weiss 50:18
would say, first visit our website at providencefrom collective.org and watch the video. Learn about what we do. We we do a lot. We have a lot of partners. We’re pretty darn impactful in food and agriculture in our region, but also in the state. And if you’re you know, planning on visiting buffalo Orchard Park, please reach out to us at our info at Providence farm collective.org ask to come see us. I’d love to give you a tour. Share with you our new barn that we finally did get built and moved into this year and and share with you our story. It’s, I think it’s really impactful. It shows the power of of people working together for collective action, for a common cause, and I would also ask that, more so than ever, it’s important for people to get behind a favorite nonprofit. I think to me, food and agriculture are, of course, really important, because everybody does eat, so find that nonprofit to support it financially, because that, right now it is, it’s an existential question for a lot of folks in This in this area, and you know, local farmers struggle. Our small farms, really, year to year, are struggling for viability. So if you can buy your food directly from a farmer, know who’s growing your food, support your local local agriculture,
Guillermo Martinez 52:21
you know, well, thank you both. I think would you present it to all our listeners is the amazing, inspiring work that you do, the need for succession planning at the highest levels of government to ensure that efforts like yours are viable and expand throughout the state. And I’d like to thank both of you for making yourselves available and contributing to this conversation, hopefully we could touch base again for another podcast and discuss some of the work that’s in the pipeline and how it’s materializing. I’d like to thank both of you. Thank you, Guillermo. That brings us to close. Today’s episodes of policy outsider we heard from the leadership of Providence farm collective in Orchard Park, New York, and explored how access to farmland culturally rooted food production and strong community partnerships are transforming the lives of New Americans while strengthening the food system for all of us, Providence farm collective reminds us that agriculture is more than an economic activity. It’s about care for community, identity, dignity and belonging by cultivating culturally appropriate foods, connecting with local farmers markets and feeding neighbors through neighborhood food pantries, Providence farm, collective farmers, are sowing the seeds of equity and resilience in Western New York. Thank you for joining us.
Joel Tirado 53:46
Thanks again to Guillermo Martinez for leading that important conversation with Providence Farm Collective’s Kristin Heltman-Weiss and Hamadi Ali. If you liked this episode, please rate, subscribe, and share. It will help others find the podcast and help us deliver the latest in public policy research. All of our episodes are available for free wherever you stream your podcasts and transcripts are available on our website. I’m Joel Tirado; until next time.
Policy Outsider is presented by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York. The Institute conducts cutting-edge nonpartisan public policy research and analysis to inform lasting solutions to the challenges facing New York state and the nation. Learn more at rockinst.org or by following RockefellerInst. That’s i n s t on social media. Have a question comment or idea? Email us at [email protected].
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