Farm to Heart
Winter 2026 Update
February 2026
Dear Farm to Heart Community,
I have been thinking back to seven years ago when Farm to Heart was just a seed of an idea. It is truly moving to see what together we have set in motion. With so much gratitude to all our volunteers, supporters, and community partners, I say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Highlights from 2025 include:
Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program fed 85 food insecure kids and their families.
We launched Community Tables, (CT), a program which expands access to locally grown food to ALL food insecure students and their families at Hough, Lincoln, Washington, and Fruit Valley Elementary schools. This program was funded by a WSDA Resiliency Grant. Scroll down to read about Community Tables in action.
We welcomed 3 new farmers and 4 new volunteers to our beautiful community.
We infused $145,230 into a sustainable, local food system that benefits all of us.
To be frank, the growth of Farm to Heart could not come at a more critical time. Many regional farmers who accept SNAP benefits have felt the impacts of federal cuts. And as you know, the need for food is skyrocketing while the barriers to accessing food, along with so much fear, is rising.
But if we are to be of service to our world, the Farm to Heart story cannot be grounded in fear.
Our story must be grounded in pragmatic determination and hope.
When I say pragmatic determination, I mean wrestling with questions each of us can ask ourselves:
What specific part of the larger system do I feel called to? (Or rather bluntly: What part of this mess am I most called to help fix?)
What groups are already working on this front (in my community, regionally, or nationally)?
And within that specific context, how will I move from complacency to action? What are the very discrete and specific steps that I can take?
What is mine alone to do?
When I say hope, I do not mean a sort of wishing or uncertain hand wringing. I mean hope as a verb - an action, a muscle we repeatedly exercise. I mean the clear-eyed intentional steps we take to create, piece by piece, the world we collectively desire. Not because success is certain, because it is the right thing to do.
“To hope is to gamble. It's to bet on your futures, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power
What’s ahead in 2026?
For Farm to Heart, our 2026 BIG vision is full of pragmatic determination and hope.
With an open heart we invite you to help us:
Deepen our Community Supported Agriculture Program. In 2026 we want to support families from four underserved elementary schools and provide free delivery to our families. $560 funds one CSA share for a food insecure child and their family in the Hough, Lincoln, Fruit Valley, or Washington elementary school communities.
Hire our first staff position to ensure our Initiative continues to grow and thrive. Help us build the organizational capacity we need while providing a living wage salary and benefits to a member of our community.
Provide year-round support to farmers and food insecure families. We can improve farm viability, incentivize organic and regenerative land practices, and ensure four school communities have access to nutrient dense food all with the same dollars! Help us fund Community Tables food purchases directly from our network of 22 community-centered farmers.
The most beautiful thing about Farm to Heart is that the dollars we receive create a triple WIN. Farmers are supported, families are fed, and the local food system- which benefits all of us- is strengthened.
We invite you to join us.
Your generous gifts of time, talent, and resources contribute to stability for farmers and families in our community. The power of Farm to Heart is our collective ability to do good **across** the food system– from field to plate.
Our model is both unique and powerful. If food work is where you feel called to exercise hope, we invite you to roll up your sleeves and find a seat at our table. If you want to provide in-kind services, volunteer, help advocate, or know a farmer that needs support, please get in touch. We would love to collaborate.
There’s room for all of us.
It’s going to be delicious.
Joyfully,
April
P.S. We’d love to hear from you by February 28th so we can make commitments to our farmers. One of our farmers recently wrote to me to say: “Your orders have actually been a huge help during a bit of a lag in some of our other sales outlets and really helped us move some product I was worried we wouldn’t sell. The gratitude extends both ways for sure. And the crew is so stoked to be supporting such a community-oriented program!"
Find A Seat At Our Table
Donate or make a pledge today. (If you need your donation to be tax deductible donate here. Otherwise, please send checks directly to April Joy Farm PO Box 973 Ridgefield, WA. 98642.)
Connect us with allies Who’s in your network? Help us build a robust food justice ecosystem. We always appreciate introductions to potential partners who are kindred spirits in the work for a thriving food system.
Volunteer. Do you have a passion for food systems communications, strategic planning, or non-profit development? Let’s talk!
Help spread the word. Share this update and encourage friends and family to find their seat at the table by signing up for updates.
One Wednesday this fall, I had the pleasure of helping Judit Torrents, Family Community Resource Coordinator at Lincoln Elementary School, staff one of our Community Tables.
What a moving experience! As we were setting up outside the school entrance, multiple people passed by, and to a T, every single one expressed sincere gratitude to me for what we were doing. Then the families started rolling in. One mother took her work lunch break to pick up carrots, parsnips, bell peppers, apples, and delicata squash. Another came towards the end, wanting to make sure others had a chance to get what they needed before asking for a second bunch of kale.
So many people, so much kindness.
As the produce boxes emptied of food, I felt they were filling up with thank yous. Families took time to share, in detail, what this food meant to them and how grateful they were that the food came from local farmers.
Families stopped what they were doing to look directly at me, knowing I would understand the meaning of the tears forming in their eyes.
Multiple vegetarians were elated at the variety of choices, the quality of the food. And then there were the food stories. Tales of simple roasted beets, of sweet stewed squash, of colorful salads, and braised short ribs with steamed carrots and thyme.
This was not your typical food assistance distribution event.
This was a reimagining of the entire story of our time.
Together we are choosing a narrative of collective abundance instead of competitive scarcity.
Together we are creating connections infused with delight and compassion, instead of fear and isolation.
Week after week, school after school, our community gatherings are forming the underpinnings of deep nourishment. Due to the laughter, the generosity, the sharing of recipes and resources, and the wide eyes and huge grins of kids tasting Asian pears or seeing purple cauliflower for the first time, we often joke– “Yeah, this is not a food pantry, it’s more like a food party.”
We aren't interested in fixing the broken food system that isolates and commodifies.
We’re cultivating a new model. We're turning toward each other to co-create a food system that works for families and farmers.
A system that is kind and generous. A system that is open and inviting. A system that supports the prosperity of our entire foodshed.
💚 We believe in the transformational power of food.
💚 We believe in nourishing our local farmers and local families.
💚 We believe in community collaboration rooted in abundance.
