About the Coalition

Welcome to the website of the Lexington Community Farm Coalition (LexFarm). We are dedicated to providing education in the community about farms, farming and sustainable land use. One of our goals is to do that by establishing a community farm in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Currently, we do not have an agricultural community farm. Our efforts since May, 2009 have been focused on the recently purchased and now town-owned Busa Farm.  We believe that this land should continue to be farmed into the future and have developed a proposal to the Town of Lexington to operate a community farm on the property. Current information about the process for deciding  the use of Busa Farm  can be found on our Busa Farm page.

Since summer 2011, our efforts have also focused on establishing and running a goat yard operation with visiting hours and hands-on farm-based education programs. We are delighted to fulfill part of our mission in this way, and we hope that we will some day be able to offer the full cycle of farm-based education (including agriculture).

The community is at the center of our work. We organize and offer public events and forums about the history of farming in Lexington, originally known as “Cambridge Farms”, and the many benefits of local farms and farming in 2011 and beyond. LexFarm is committed to working with everyone interested in establishing a community farm in Lexington. We hope you’ll read our FAQ to learn more,  join our email list for continuing updates on our progress, and let us know how you can help!

Coalition History, Organization and Leadership

The Lexington Community Farm Coalition began in May, 2009 as a grassroots organization founded by three neighbors (Janet Kern, Meg Muckenhoupt and Jay Luker) concerned about the fate of Busa Farm upon its sale to the Town of Lexington.  Interest and support for keeping the land a working farm grew exponentially and by the end of 2009, there were 1500 signatures on our petition, and several hundred names on our mailing list.  In addition,  Citizens for Lexington Conservation generously agreed to act as our nonprofit fiscal sponsor until we were able to gain our own status.

As of August 17, 2010, we have officers, a board of directors and by-laws!

As of September, 2010 we are a nonprofit corporation in Massachusetts!

As of February 24, 2011, we have applied for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS.
We are extremely fortunate to have legal representation from the law firm of Ropes & Gray.

As of October 1, 2011, we have started a goat yard operation for farm-based education, and have hired our first two, part-time employees as goat caretakers !

LexFarm Board of Directors – Updated January 13, 2012

Janet Kern, President

Janet is a former software quality manager who is dedicated to helping teams of people make connections in communities. She was a market manager and website designer for the Lexington Farmers’ Market from 2005 – 2009 and worked with LexMedia and Lexington Community Education to produce the “Lexington Localvore” program in 2010. She and her family live in the 1789 farmhouse of the former Reed Dairy Farm and host a CSA micro-farm for Rad Urban Farmers in their back yard. Janet also serves as a Lexington Town Meeting member from Precinct 1.

Jay Luker, Vice-President

Jay is an IT specialist for the Smithsonian Astrophysics Data System and a member of the Board of Directors of the Waltham Fields Community Farm.

Derek Moody, Treasurer

Derek, a certified public accountant, is a finance and accounting manager. He moved with his family to Lexington in 2008. His family receives a CSA share from the Food Project in Lincoln and host a Rad Urban Farmers micro-farm in their back yard.

Margaret Heitz, Clerk

Margaret is a technical and business writer. Margaret moved to Lexington from Cambridge with her husband and two young daughters in 1993. She is a Precinct 4 Town Meeting member, co-founder in 2007 of One Lexington Dialogue, a player (retired) with Lexpressas women’s soccer, a perpetual gardener-in-training, and an enthusiastic CSA shareholder with Waltham Fields Community Farm.

Carol Damm

Carol joined LexFarm’s Board in December, 2010. She has been part of the local food movement for 2 decades by being an active member of food co-ops in Minnesota and then Oregon. For her, it can’t get more local than growing and harvesting the food for your table at a community farm.

Ellen Frye

Ellen has been involved in environmental outreach since 1975, when she was Outreach Coordinator at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. She is now a partner at Enosis—the Environmental Outreach Group in Lexington and a member of the Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition.  She has lived in Lexington since 1984.

Brenda Netreba

Brenda is an environmental analyst at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.  Prior to moving to Lexington in 2009, she lived in Newton where she quckly became a big fan of the Newton Community Farm.  She has enjoyed being a CSA shareholder of Picadilly Farm in Winchester, NH for the last 2 years, is a member of the Waltham Fields Community Farm, and has been pleasantly surprised by the success of her own vegetable garden.

Valerie Overton

Valerie is a Vice President at Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), an environmental and safety and health consulting firm located here in Lexington. At ERG, Valerie has led numerous scientific, communications, and IT projects related to environmental medicine and related issues. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Lexington Montessori School, where her daughter is a student. Living in the Emerson Gardens condo complex, Valerie’s family has just a tiny space for gardening, but they delight in growing what they can — and in participating in a CSA to enjoy a wide variety of locally grown organic produce.

Kristen Reed

Kristen is a Senior Research Associate at the Education Development Center, Inc (EDC). Her research focuses on the implementation of mathematics instructional materials and mathematics professional development for elementary and secondary teachers and administrators. Prior to working at EDC, Kristen taught elementary school in Boston. She grew up in Lexington and returned with her husband and two young children in 2007.  Her family participates in a variety of CSA programs for produce, meat, and fish as well as hosting a Rad Urban Farmers micro-farm in their backyard..

Please feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions: info@lexfarm.org