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JK Community Farm Feeding The Food Insecure
JK Community Farm Feeding The Food Insecure
By Ronen Feldman
The JK Community Farm outside Purcellville marks a promising trend for farming in Northern Virginia, combining ingenuity in agriculture with commitment to those in need.
This 150-acre working farm is practicing regenerative, sustainable, chemical-free agriculture, growing crops intended solely for the food insecure. Since its creation in 2018, the farm has made tremendous strides in its varieties of produce, collaborations and numbers of volunteers.
Samantha Kuhn, the farm’s executive director, was a pre-med student when she realized what her true calling was. After graduating from the University of Tennessee with a degree in biochemistry and environmental sociology, she started the farm with her philanthropist father, Chuck Kuhn, the founder and owner of JK Moving.
“We want to make sure people have access to fresh produce, and we’re determined to keep it local,” she said. “Most pantries didn’t have any fresh products when we started, and people didn’t know how to cook many of them.”
The farm grows 56 different varieties of vegetables, fruits, proteins, herbs and spices, donating everything. They also donate grass-fed beef, produce seasonal crops and make sure to survey the needs of families and food pantry partners every year. In Northern Virginia alone, 90,000 people are facing food insecurity, and 40 percent are children.
Farm director Mike Smith is the only other full-time employee working alongside Kuhn. The farm is operated primarily with the help of volunteers, both corporate and community driven, and the farm’s corporate partners, private donations and budget increases help it grow.
Food education also is a primary concern for Samantha Kuhn.
“People aren’t only suffering from a poor and unhealthy diet, but are missing out on a cheaper, more diverse alternative,” she said. “Because of modern living, only a minority of people actually consume healthy, organic foods.”
The JK Farm’s food education program includes after-school programs for children, field trips and guided tours for families. Prompted by the quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic, the farm gave families an opportunity to get some fresh air in a safe environment.
The programs are offered primarily to elementary school children to learn about the produce. They play games, conduct taste tests and get to handle fruits and vegetables they’ve never seen before, like a yellow watermelon. The purpose, according to Samantha, is to educate tomorrow’s adults.
“Even a subtle experience like coming to a harvest, picking vegetables and later seeing your parents put them on your plate is enough to make a child think differently,” she said.
The farm has a number of partnerships in Northern Virginia, some of them outside Loudoun County. They include the D.C. Central Kitchen (where farm volunteer also they help prepare meals for the homeless), the Arlington Food Assistance Center, and Food For Others.
By the end of 2023, the JK Community Farm distributed 245,000 pounds of organic produce and protein to families who are experiencing food insecurity. This contribution provided approximately 196,000 meals, with 175,000 pounds of produce and 60,000 pounds of protein.
The farm’s efforts last season brought the total amount of food donated to its food pantry partners since its establishment in 2018 to one million pounds. Even now, their team is preparing for the spring, and volunteering opportunities will be available in March.
