Jessica Cherry
Founder, ReImagining the Workplace
Host of the ReImagination Café podcast
What’s New at the ReImagination Café™
Dear visitors to the ReImagination Café™,
Earlier this year, I interviewed Kristen Powers, Executive Director of Benevolence Farm, which provides transitional housing, employment, and wraparound services to women and gender-expansive people exiting incarceration in North Carolina. Residents working at the farm benefit from being in nature—where they can slow down, heal, and have their basic needs met. You can find that interview here.
A few months later, I met Kate Mudge, Co-Director of the Care Farming Network, and learned that
Benevolence Farm is one of hundreds of "care farms" across the U.S., each using therapeutic farming
to promote health, well-being, and belonging.
No two care farms are alike. While rooted in farming, they're customized to meet the needs of the
people and communities they serve, offering reciprocal benefits—to participants (often members
of marginalized or overlooked groups) and to local communities, through organic vegetables, care
for rescued animals, green spaces, and safe havens. The Care Farming Network brings care farmers
together to share resources and support each other.
In a world obsessed with scale and mega-mergers, care farms remind us that bigger isn't always
better—that sometimes the most powerful change comes from small, unique places tailored to
the people and communities they serve.
Working on this episode had a profound impact on me. It took me back to simpler times—day
camp, playing in the mud, skinny-dipping in the lake, scavenger hunts. I spent my early years
being active outdoors, with unstructured time to slow down, explore, and take in the world.
Fast forward fifty years - life seems to be moving at lightning speed. I'm inside most of the time,
sitting at my desk. Unstructured time is rare. Too many conversations happen through a screen.
Maybe it's time to slow down, step outside, and engage more fully with the world - trade some Zoom calls for walks in the woods.
And maybe the next time I find myself standing in the mud, I'll take my shoes off.
Care to join me?
A huge thank you to Kate Mudge, Woody Woodroof, Shawn Hayden, Adam and Lacey Ingrao, and Charley Schwartz for sharing their knowledge, passion, and wisdom—and for reminding us of the power of nature and community to heal and connect us.
Reimagining always,
Jessica Cherry
Check out our latest episode “Cultivating Change: The Transformative Power of Care Farming,“ which features:
Kate Mudge, Co-Director of the Care Farming Network, which provides resources and support to care farmers across the country.
Woody Woodroof, founder of Red Wiggler Care Farm in Maryland, one of the earliest care farms in the United States, where people with disabilities have been growing vegetables for the local community for thirty years.
Charley Schwartz, Grower and Tour Guide at Red Wiggler Care Farm.
Adam and Lacey Ingrao, founders of Bee Wise Farms in Michigan, which integrates mindfulness practices and beekeeping, and works extensively with veterans and their families.
Shawn Hayden, CEO of GAAMHA in Massachusetts, which operates the Carl E. Dahl House, where people in recovery take care of rescued animals.
Full Episode: Cultivating Change: The Transformative Power of Care Farming
Select Excerpts and Supplemental Tracks
Coming Soon!
