After 11 wonderful years, and numerous different roles, it's time for Co-Managing Director, Kim Brooks, to move on and pass the baton onto Tom Richardson, who has been working alongside Kim for the past 18 months. Kim has shared her reflections from 11 years at The Farm...
'Trying to put 11 years into words feels almost impossible: 3 years as a volunteer, 2 as a bookkeeper and 6 as Managing Director. I've looked through old annual reports, financial analyses and even the Government's new Farming Roadmap for inspiration, all in an attempt to make this something other than an emotional farewell.
But a leopard can't change its spots.
I first found organic farming through a local veg box in Brisbane and the opportunity to volunteer on organic farms through WWOOF. I'd always wondered how supermarket shelves were filled, and spending time with organic farmers opened my eyes to two things at once: mainstream farming and food systems were causing profound harm to nature and our health, yet organic farming seemingly had many of the solutions.
The question that followed me home was simple: if there was a better way of farming, why wasn't everyone talking about it?
Determined to leave the world of finance and work in food and farming, I volunteered at The Community Farm's Squash Harvest in 2015. With my arms full of squash I realised I'd found what I had been looking for: a place where people, food and farming came together with purpose..."
The intervening years have been full of extraordinary experiences. We've welcomed thousands of people through the gates: volunteers, schoolchildren, customers, community groups, researchers, trainees and curious visitors wanting to know more.
Together we've built polytunnels, harvested vegetables, run workshops, hosted farm tours, built bug hotels, installed badger cameras and dormouse tunnels, celebrated with wassails, created community partnerships, spoken at conferences, created health and wellbeing programmes and pathways, counted butterflies and bees, launched crowdfunders and packed an awful lot of veg boxes.
At it's heart, The Community Farm is a working organic Community Supported Agriculture farm. We grow vegetables, but we also do something much bigger. Every day we welcome people into better food and farming. We help build understanding of where food comes from, demonstrate that farming can work with nature, and create opportunities for people to connect with land, food and each other.
Community Supported Agriculture.
Agriculture Supporting Community.
For me, that is the magic of this place.
In a world facing climate change, biodiversity loss and health crisis, The Community Farm shows that another way is possible. Not by standing on the side and shouting about it, not by claiming we have the all the solutions, but through inviting people in.
Keeping The Gates Open.
That simple idea has shaped so much of my time here, and it is what brings a tear to my eye as I leave. Every volunteer welcomed, every school visit hosted, every customer who chose a veg box, every supporter who contributed to our journey has helped make that possible.
I am so very proud to be part of it.
With more gratitude than I could ever fit onto a page,
Thank you.'
by Kim Brooks, Former MD
