The following clip features LCFC’s Janet Kern setting the record straight regarding the necessity, or lack thereof, of a town subsidy to support our vision for a community farm. A diagram below shows an example community farm budget.
Well said, Janet!
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To clarify what we mean by “no town subsidy required”, take a look at the the diagram to the right. It is taken from a presentation given by Sam Robinson, board member of the Waltham Fields Community Farm, at a farm panel discussion hosted by the LCFC back in May of 2009. What it shows are the sources and percentages of revenue taken in by the WFCF organization. The largest percentage (in red) is revenue from their CSA and partnership sales. This revenue alone is more than enough to pay for the entire operational budget of the farm. This includes farm supplies, farm equipment, staff salary and benefits.
I was asked to post for the record, the 2 minute slide presentation that I gave at Lexington Town Meeting during the discussion period for the purchase of Busa Farm. The context was that the Community Preservation Committee had worded the motion to purchase the property for “open space, recreation and/or affordable housing”. Knowing that farming is a valid and common use of open space in many other towns, I thought it was important that Lexington Town Meeting members see this as an option for Lexington.
Steve Ervin, one of our invaluable volunteers, has rendered a fantastic depection of what a Lexinton community farm might look like. The visualization depicts many of the farm features that came from our recent brainstorming meeting, including fun things like beehives and butterfly gardens and practical things like a farm stand and access to the bike path.
I love the not-to-scale, slightly fairyland aspect of it. If you’d like a copy of your own to print out it can be downloaded from this link.
