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Sometimes you feel like you can’t say Thank You enough; this is certainly one of those times. For those of you who have the pleasure of knowing The Farm well, you will also know Angela Raffle and Will Warin (known affectionately and collectively as The Waffles!). While they’re simply changing roles (and thankfully not going anywhere!), this is a moment to pause and reflect as Co-Managing Director, Kim Brooks, offers a heartfelt thank you for everything they've put into the the farm.
Angela has been involved with The Farm since before the beginning, and then every step of the way since; helping push it from idea to reality, being one of the founders, and part of the Management Committee ever since, majority of that time as Chair, as well as being a constant field volunteer.
Will, having been introduced to us through his Soil Association Grower’s apprenticeship, joined our farming team as a volunteer, bringing that much needed additional energy not only for growing, but endless projects too. He steered us through rocky waters when our Head Grower left in 2022, creating and being part of our core growing team since then.
Thankfully, Will and Angela aren’t leaving us, they’re simply changing roles. Angela stood down from the Management Committee in November, focusing now on being a field volunteer. Will has moved back to being that additional push for the farming team; helping us to reach and complete those projects on the farm that simply otherwise don’t get done, forever improving the system.
Here's some words of reflection from me, with thanks.
As many of you know, The Farm has a way of getting under your skin, of working its way into your life. Into your family.
This has certainly been the case for Angela and Will.
Will, at first let The Community Farm (somehow) happen in the background.
Angela, in the early days, was driving out to some place called Chew Magna, to fight with a bunch of farmers around kitchen tables and try and turn them into well organised activists.
Coming home with tales of disastrous committee meetings, people not listening to each other, hiring and firing staff, harebrained projects and attempting to run an organisation with absolutely no money.
Sleepless nights were all Angela’s at this point – 3am text messages with Alison Belshaw our project lead, endless reworking of grant applications, and of course, countless remarkable “you couldn’t make it up” moments.
But somehow, over time, The Farm got under Will’s skin. Ian Sumpter, our Community Farmer, instrumental in giving Will a nudge to enter the fold – “give up medicine, no future in that, Organic Farming, that’s the answer”!
Years pass.
Will picks up project after project in the fields, embarking on the world’s finest irrigation system, and Angela carefully crafts a Management Committee so well organised and full of respect for each other, members stick around for years and their ways of working get shared around the better organisations of Somerset.
2020: I become Managing Director. Angela is Chair of the Management Committee, so technically my boss. I enjoy full support from Angela from here on in; weekly “check-ins”, endless patience, source of knowledge (and shoulder to cry on).
2022: John English our Head Grower announces he’s leaving. Will, remarkably, offers to support – to step into John’s shoes, absorb all the additional knowledge he hadn’t yet picked up, take on the mammoth task of the crop plan, whilst helping me recruit 2 other growers to form our new team of 3 Growers.
Like I say, they’re not leaving, they can’t. As Lucy, their daughter once told me, “The Farm we always joked was like the additional child, practically sitting at the kitchen table with us”.
I’m often asked “what do volunteers mean to The Farm”.
It’s simultaneously the easiest and hardest question to answer, but in this case? “Everything”.
On behalf of us all, Angela and Will, Thank You.
