Kerri Waldron“Out of all my customers, Heart & Soil Collective is my favorite by far. The Community Produce and Winter Soup Programs perfectly align with my objective as a farmer, which is to provide food to those who need it most. Knowing how much intention and time they put into giving back to the community makes my work all the more satisfying.”
— Zack Zenk, Rock and Root Farm
Kristen Tool and Chris Wheeler have the perfect names for a farming partnership—and much more. Their for-profit business, Olsen Farm, and nonprofit Heart & Soil Collective (both based in Lanesborough) are rooted in historic ties to the land and connections to the community, nurtured by boundless creativity, generosity, and devotion.
Tool’s ties to the land were formed as a young girl growing up in the Vermont woods, where her parents encouraged her to be outside and explore. “Those early experiences made it comfortable to scale this up,” she acknowledges. After earning a BFA in textile design, she returned to college to get a degree in Special Ed/Early Childhood Education, training she uses daily working on the farm, running the nonprofit, creating watercolor illustrations for their websites and products, and designing and running educational programs. All those abilities—and her “deep dedication to improving the quality of life for those living and working in our community”—earned her a “40 Under Forty” award from Berkshire Community College this year.
Through a grant from the Mass Cultural Council (awarded to Heart & Soil), Tool is currently working on a local produce guide for seniors and families that will include nutritional information and ideas/guidelines for cooking. “Emergency food sites can distribute food, but we also need to show them how to use it to avoid food waste,” she explains.
Wheeler grew up on Olsen Farm, founded by his great-grandfather Thomas Olsen, who came to New York City from Norway in 1923 but quickly decided city living was “no way for a man to live,” Wheeler relays. Olsen also believed “a man ought to raise what he needs to eat” and “have a roof of his own over his head.” So he began exploring western Massachusetts and eventually found a parcel of land that felt so familiar he is recorded as saying, “I knew I was home.”
Tool and Wheeler started working the farm—28 acres of mixed forest, meadow, and orchard— in 2015, adding animals (chickens, turkeys, and guinea fowl), bees, fruit trees, and vegetables. They launched their nonprofit, Heart & Soil Collective, as a way to give back to the community that helped support them in rebuilding their fourth-generation farm. “We want to share both our knowledge and our bounty with the community and create a new generation of confident farmers,” Tool says.
Reducing waste and feeding the community
The food reclamation model has shifted, with getting food distributed before it reaches the dumpster being the new mantra. “Everyone wants to eliminate waste, but no one has time,” Tool acknowledges. “Farmers are overworked and underpaid. We need other organizations to fill the gap, and part of Heart & Soil’s mission is to do just that.”
Heart & Soil Collective’s Community Produce and Winter Soup Programs provide (per its website) “free, fresh produce purchased from small farms and hearty soups made using local ingredients directly to seniors and families”—easing food insecurity, building community, decreasing food waste, and helping support Berkshire County farms.
The couple started the program through Olsen Farm in 2020, when most seniors were still wary of shopping in grocery stores due to COVID and farmers had extra produce due to the farmers’ markets being on hold indefinitely. “We all had so much food that would have been wasted, but instead, people donated their surplus to us so we could drop off fresh produce to seniors,” Tool shares.
“Because of Chris’s longtime connections to Lanesborough through his parents and grandparents, a whole network of ‘community grandparents’ came out to offer us financial and emotional support when we first bought the farm,” Tool explains. They started to give back to those seniors during the pandemic—eight households at first that grew to over 60 households in four towns by last year.
“COVID really opened our eyes,” she continues. “We needed to run the farm and have it be for profit, but we also needed a nonprofit organization with a board to address the needs of the community.” Tool enrolled in an intensive E for All Business Accelerator program in 2020, created a nine-person board, and worked on building their email list and connections with other farms. In 2021, based on the produce and soup programs’ success, they started Heart & Soil Collective as a nonprofit with a grant from EforAll. They received a Berkshire Ag Ventures/USDA Grant in 2023 to expand the program expansion, develop a strategic plan, and hire staff.
A tiny seed yields a full harvest
The Community Produce and Winter Soup Programs now serve seniors, families, organizations, and small farms across Berkshire County—including collaborations with 18 Degrees Family Resource Center in Pittsfield and Pediatric Palliative Care/Hospice of the Berkshires. Berkshire County partner farms include Bittersweet Farm, Full Well Farm, Holiday Brook Farm, Mountain Girl Farm, Rock and Root Farm, Second Drop Farm, Shaker Creek Farm, Square Roots Farm, and Windy Ridge Organic Farm. “We don’t purchase any produce from Olsen Farm for Heart & Soil, both to avoid conflict of interest and because other small farms need the support,” Tool points out.
They also shifted the name from The Free Produce Program to The Community Produce Program”—a significant shift in perspective because of the realization that “free” implied a handout, which made people uncomfortable. “We don’t use income eligibility requirements for our nonprofit. That excludes people and creates a stigma,” she notes. “We’re feeding everyone. More participation and more data help us feed more people.”
Heart & Soil currently delivers directly to homes in Lanesborough, Pittsfield, Dalton, and Adams and is in the process of expanding to Cheshire, Savoy, Sheffield, and Hinsdale. Every $600 raised provides free, fresh produce directly to a local family for the season, and every $300 covers the cost of providing weekly soup from January through April to a senior (all donations are tax deductible).
The focus, however, is on seniors. “Using the same amount of soup, we can feed 40 senior homes, compared to 11 families,” Tool says, “and many other programs address families’ needs.” Maryellen, one program participant, confirms, “This is a needed program. I do not drive, and sometimes it is difficult to get to the store. My door delivery is so good, and I can depend on it.”
Hands-on workshops and experiences
The teaching component through the farm includes hands-on workshops and experiences because (Tool affirms) “growing your own food and medicine gives you comfort and power.” The Backyard Remedies: Plant Preparations Workshop Series, offered this summer, will focus on how to identify, harvest, and prepare simple backyard remedies using plants found commonly across the Berkshires (including dandelion, raspberry leaf, goldenrod, violet, plantain, nettle, red clover, and St. Johns Wort). Participants will learn to identify medicinal plants and their properties, contraindications, and harvest times; explore wild foraging; and prepare tea, tincture, syrup, and infused oil and salve.
The partners will also offer Pollinator Garden Shares of their favorite Olsen Farm plants, seeds, and cuttings (15 plant shares in all, starting in late May and distributed based on bloom time), as well as Egg Shares and Bee Bundles. “We’re trying to create a future where everyone has access to healthy, local foods and the knowledge, supplies, and resources to grow their own,” she emphasizes. In addition, Tool’s blogs/articles for Mother Earth News are readily available on the Olsen Farm website, covering everything from the magic of silkie chickens to propolis (what bees use to build hives) for health to cleaning out old farm dumps.
Expanding the network of providers and recipients
Given their faster-than-anticipated growth and success and the fact that every community could benefit from locally sourced produce, Tool and Wheeler decided not to limit or slow their growth. Instead, they considered: Why not try a pilot program now with a 10-year goal of expanding their Community Produce Program into every town in the Berkshires through a “hub-and-spoke” model?
Beginning in July, this program will be piloted in partnership with Field of Love Farm in Sheffield. However, the long-term plan is for Heart & Soil Collective to serve as the facilitator and provide funding for local farms to grow produce for their communities. These partnerships will extend Heart & Soil’s work to address food insecurity, create new revenue streams for farmers, build connections, and reduce waste, deepening its impact throughout the Berkshires.
Heart & Soil also collaborates with partner farms and local organizations to offer farm tours and educational opportunities for children and adults to learn to grow their own food, care for animals, and become more connected to the land where their food grows. A kick-off farm tour will be held on Saturday, July 13 (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) at Holiday Brook Farm; three more tours with other partner farms across the Berkshires are still being scheduled. Each tour will include a guided walk with farmers and hands-on activity. (Join their email list via heartandsoil.org to stay informed!)
“Our 10-year goal is to have our food security program in every Berkshire town—and, using the hub-and-spoke model, we believe that is possible,” Tool explains. As more farms partner with Heart & Soil, they will rely on Council on Aging staff to help them connect with more seniors. “In the end, we hope to make connections and facilitate delivery/distribution rather than traveling ourselves. That’s the only way we can focus on maintaining growth.”
Do they aim to go deeper or broader? “A little of both,” she says. This year, they are providing produce to 100 homes every week, but she envisions increasing that number if they can go to biweekly deliveries for seniors who can’t consume a full share.
Keeping up with ever-changing economic and environmental climates
What were the biggest challenges in their nearly decade-long farming journey? “Consistent revenue is always a challenge, both for farming and running a nonprofit,” Tool admits. “Last year was terrible for farming due to the rain and temperature fluctuations. No one had any zucchini!” For Heart & Soil, there’s a lot of pressure to fundraise to cover the program expenses and pay themselves a salary, she confides, noting that since COVID, people are less able to give.
Equally challenging are the growing food needs of the community. According to the Urban Institute, “The decline in food insecurity between 2019 and 2021 in the wake of the robust government and private response to the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by a sharp increase in food insecurity between 2021 and 2022, coinciding with expiring aid and rising inflation.” It continued to rise in 2023, with more than 27 percent of adults reporting food insecurity, up from 24.9 percent in 2022.
“There were 32 percent more people visiting emergency food sites in 2023 than in the previous year,” Tool points out. To ensure they can continue to sustain Heart & Soil (now eight times its original budget), they are undertaking more grant writing/fundraising initiatives and seeking business sponsorships in addition to individual donations.
For example, Heart & Soil introduced the “Sponsor” a Senior program in March 2023, aimed at getting Berkshire businesses to sponsor a senior’s share. Beyond providing food and nutrition, these partnerships and the weekly contact help seniors feel less isolated and forge relationships within the local community. Businesses that donate are featured on Heart & Soil’s website and social media and invited to join the annual Soup Party in October to taste-test recipes delivered to the seniors they sponsor.
Tool and Wheeler will be helped by two high school interns this summer, plus a grant program coordinator through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They are actively working to build more visibility and support through Instagram and Facebook (they currently have about 300 followers for each) by talking at farmers’ markets and making presentations at local Council on Aging meetings.
The rewards—connecting to family, land, community
What’s the best part? For Wheeler, it’s the connection to family and the trust, responsibility, and fulfillment of continuing his family’s farming legacy.
For Tool, “it’s experiencing the connections with seniors, other farms, and other organizations.” For example, during downtime, the Lanesborough Ambulance crew delivers produce to the seniors. “Knowing who is coming through their door before the emergency is reassuring for the seniors and makes the emergency responders better prepared to do their jobs”—a win-win for everyone.
“Seeing the very positive impact this simple model is having makes me extremely happy,” she says, smiling.
Source: theberkshireedge.com
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