Growing Home: Meet Beth De Vries, Founder of Phoenix Community Farm

I feel so grateful to live in a town that has so many people who are willing to work hard to make positive change for our community. Beth De Vries is one of those special humans. Read on to learn all about Phoenix Community Farm, and their mission to build a sustainable, vibrant community that is growing and eating healthy food together!

Love,
Max

Max: Hi Beth. Can you share a bit about your connection to Midland? How long have you lived here, what brought you to the area, and what inspired you to stay?

Beth: We moved to Midland in 2010 after living in Ithaca, NY for my husband’s post-doctoral research at Cornell University. We moved here for my husband’s new job at Dow. I grew up in McBain, MI and we were looking to move back closer to family. We originally planned to only stay a few years in Midland, but we quickly grew to love it here. Midland is a great family town. We love all the family activities in town especially all the parks, the rail trail, Dow Gardens, city forest, and the nature center.

M: Tell us about Phoenix Community Farm. What motivated you to start this nonprofit, and how has the journey been in establishing and growing the Farm?

B: In 2018 I decided to focus on the health of my family and the work of caring for our 4 children. I stopped formally working as a Nurse Practitioner. I was driven by a desire to go back to my roots and try to grow the vegetables we need for our family. We started a 500 square foot raised bed garden in our yard. Along with a desire to grow vegetables for my own family, my desire for everyone to have fresh local vegetables has grown. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, I worked in Women's Health in Midland for 6 years doing wellness exams and I found many people struggled with my recommendations for increasing vegetable intake due to lack of knowledge and resources. I learned that hunger is not a distant theoretical problem, but food insecurity is a problem that affects 1 out of 3 families in Midland County. One out of three families have to make difficult decisions between paying bills and purchasing food for their families. Many people have trouble affording fresh produce on their budgets. It is sad that the best food for our bodies is often considered a luxury, one that not all can afford.

After setting up our home garden, I started working with Midland Fresh and started a community garden at Midland Christian School. Then an opportunity came up for us to rent land from friends who were moving. Their home tragically burned and they were moving out of the area. We rented the 30 acres for recreational purposes, but a large cleared area caught our attention as an opportunity to serve in a huge way. We wanted to create beauty out of the ashes of the tragic situation, so we called it Phoenix Farm. In October 2020, the farm moved to a larger location to collaborate with Windover High School, allowing greater opportunities to work with students from the school, people in the neighborhood, volunteers from around Midland, and the local Head Start Preschool.

Phoenix Community Farm has been well supported by local individual donors, volunteers, churches, and foundations and because of that support we have grown exponentially. In our first growing season in 2019 we donated 1,420 pounds of produce, our first season at Windover in 2021 we donated 10,162 and last year we were able to donate 29,837 pounds!

It’s so exciting to be leading an organization making a big impact in our community and it is also stressful every year to budget having faith that the support from the community through donations and grants will continue. Thankfully as we are growing we have added some monthly donors which help sustain our year round work with consistent funding.

A touching comment card left on the Phoenix Community Farm “Pay What You Can” Stand.

M: The mission of Phoenix Community Farm is inspiring, focusing not only on providing fresh produce, but also on educating and empowering the community. How do you personally connect with this mission, and what drives your passion for it?

B: I grew up on a dairy farm in McBain, MI. Like many in our community, we experienced some financial insecurity, but never food insecurity. I grew up with my parents and extended family always tending a large garden where we grew almost all of the produce we needed for the whole year. We preserved the harvest for the winter by canning and freezing vegetables and fruits. Although many in our community had few financial resources, most knew how to grow and preserve food for their family. Growing and preserving food is knowledge and art that is being lost in our culture today. I want to teach these skills to my children and to people in the community. Preparing your own food is cheaper and healthier than buying prepackaged and processed food. There is also great joy in growing something like a bright red or yellow, juicy tomato from a tiny seed. I am still amazed every year by the process. My children and the volunteers and participants we work with are always excited about the produce and more willing to try something new when they are involved in the process.

M: Phoenix Community Farm plays a big role in meeting the basic need for fresh, healthy produce in the Midland community. I think a lot of folks would be surprised to hear many people in our town struggle with food insecurity. Can you elaborate on why this work is important for the Midland County?

B: According to a United Way of Midland County survey from several years ago, one in three households in Midland County is struggling to meet basic needs, forcing them to make the difficult decision between paying bills and purchasing food for their family. Unfortunately, the food security struggle has only worsened locally and nationally with the impact of the catastrophic dam failure, the impact of COVID-19, and economic challenges.

Phoenix Community Farm is working to be part of the solution to mitigate the barrier of access to fresh, healthy produce for those in need. We focus on making sure everyone has access to our programs, specifically the ALICE population who do not qualify for other services. 59.2% of ALICE families are considered food insecure.

According to Midland county health rankings, 17% of children in Midland County live in poverty and 27% of children are eligible for free lunch. At Windover High School, more than 90% of the students qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. There are also a number of students at Windover who are couch-surfing or homeless. These students often bring home food for their households from school. Phoenix Community Farm helps to provide some of the fresh healthy produce that they need and education about growing, harvesting, preparing, eating and preserving healthy food.

Food and nutrition security is not just about access to a quantity of food; it encompasses having consistent access to enough healthy food to live an active, healthy lifestyle. We focus on community health and recommend fresh produce as the healthiest food for our bodies. We are committed to teaching people how to grow their own food as well as distribute what is grown with the community. Educating our community is fundamental to the mission of Phoenix Community Farm and to the health of our citizens.

The benefits of the Farm go beyond donating tons of food and education. Community Gardens, though not magic, have a multitude of far-reaching benefits for the communities that support them. According to Katie Mayers, community gardens not only provide great amounts of fresh healthy produce, but also increase property values, lower food security concerns, have a positive impact on neighborhood security, increase fruit and vegetable intake in participants, and decrease obesity.

M: I love that Phoenix Community Farm offers various ways for the community to support your mission, from pay-what-you-can produce stands, to CSA subscriptions, uPick flowers, and volunteering in the fields. Can you tell us more about these options and how individuals can get involved or contribute to the farm?

B: We are so grateful for many supportive donors, volunteers, and customers. Visit our website phoenixcommunityfarm.com to donate and to find lots of information about our current programs. Sign up for our Newsletter on our website to get detailed updates.

We are offering free community education including:

Garden Classes with Phoenix Community Farm
Creative 360 and Phoenix Community Farm are partnering to bring a variety of interesting and informative gardening classes.
- Thursdays / 6:30 – 7:30 pm / Free! / Please let us know you are coming.
  - 2/15 - Vegetable Gardening 101
  - 3/7 - Seed Starting
  - 3/21 - Gardening 101
  - 4/4 - Composting
Subscriptions
- U-Pick Flowers
  - Come once a week to pick your own bouquet from our flower fields. Tuesday evening 6:00-7:30pm OR Thursday morning 9:00-10:30am Bring your own jar. Limited clippers and harvest buckets provided at the farm.  July 9 - September 24,  $150 , 14 weeks
- Vegetable CSA
  - A variety of freshly harvested vegetables from the farm, prepared for you! Weekly assortments vary through the season, but will include 7-12 different veggies.
    Tuesday Evenings, 5:00-7:00pm, June 17 - October 1, $400, 16 weeks
- Greens Subscription
  - An assortment of 3-4 varieties of seasonal greens for weekly pickup. A nice add-on for to the CSA for those who enjoy additional greens. Please note, our CSA does include greens, but for those who enjoy daily salads this may a nice addition.
    Tuesday Evenings, 5:00-7:00pm, $50 per session, 8 weeks per session.
    Session I: May 8 - June 25
    Session II: July 9 - August 27
    Session III: September 3 - October 22
Pay What you Can Produce Stands
- These are open during the growing season – Usually June to October. One is located by the farm at 919 Smith Rd. and one is located at 6220 Jefferson Ave.
- We want to make sure everyone has access to fresh, healthy food, so we offer farm fresh produce stocked usually on Mondays and Thursdays. Our intention is for everyone to be able to take what they need and pay what you can as a donation to support our mission.

We have many volunteer opportunities available for people of all ages. Sign up for our newsletter on our website to find out more about volunteering when we get closer to the growing season.

M: Thank you so much for sharing more about the Farm with me today! My final question is what do you love most about Midland, and how do you think Phoenix Community Farm contributes to making Midland County a place where everyone thrives?

What I love most about Midland is the numerous opportunities to get out, explore, meet up with people, and be in nature. Phoenix Community Farm is a beautiful addition to these opportunities. About one quarter of our Farm is dedicated to flowers. We grow and sell flowers to help support our donations of tons of vegetables, but they also add so much to our farm. The flowers attract beneficial birds and insects. They are also a bright spot in my day and my kids love the u-pick subscription we got last year. They loved to make their own bouquets and gift them to grandma and me.

Our community farm is about more than just donating a huge amount of fresh healthy produce and being a beautiful space to enjoy nature. Phoenix Community Farm has been growing community. Interpersonal relationships and connection are strong predictors of health and happiness. Dozens of studies have shown that people who have satisfying relationships are happier, have fewer health problems, and live longer. We started as a 100% volunteer run organization and continues to operate with the majority of the work done by volunteers working together with a few staff to coordinate volunteers, manage planning and organizing, and coordinate education. Many volunteers have expressed their enjoyment of working at the Farm and some volunteers have formed new relationships and connections while volunteering. Staff have observed volunteers go from strangers to offering rides to medical appointments in a few short months of working together at Phoenix Community Farm.

Our vision is to build a sustainable, vibrant community that is growing and eating healthy food together!

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