Harvesting Hope by Lynda Van Kuren photos by Logan Burke
This nonprofit farm produces more than food
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ou could say that farming is in MARI CARL FISHER’s blood. So is her passion for helping others. It’s a combination that impelled Fisher to found Rise Up Community Farm. Like any farm, Rise Up Community Farm grows produce, but it’s so much more than that. It also provides fresh vegetables to the needy in the area and supports local youth by helping them improve personal and job skills. “Through Rise Up Community Farm, I want to plant hope in the community as we cultivate the land, educate and nourish neighbors in need, and empower people to have meaningful lives,” says Fisher, who serves as the farm’s manager and executive director. Rise Up Community Farm is the culmination of Fisher’s background, work experience, and dreams. When she came to Wilmington in 2008 to study environmental science at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Fisher already knew a lot about working the soil – information she gained firsthand on her father’s farm in Virginia. Seeing the impact organic farming had on the community, Fisher decided to pursue it as a career. After graduation, she worked for a nonprofit organic farm in Florida for three years. Her second job was with
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a food bank for Central and Eastern North Carolina, where she collaborated with grocery stores and farmers to get fresh and healthy food donated to those in need. Fisher moved back to Wilmington in 2018 to marry her husband, who shared her vision. In 2019, Global River Church donated land for the enterprise, Fisher got nonprofit status for it, and Rise Up Community Farm was born. True to her beliefs, Fisher grows only organic produce. She concentrates on vegetables that people enjoy and that grow well in Wilmington’s hot, humid climate. Offerings include squash, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, sweet potatoes, okra, collard greens, and butter beans. Half of the farm’s produce is earmarked for the community’s needy, which encompasses a larger population than you might suspect. About 33,600 individuals in New Hanover County – including 8,000 children, or one of every five children – are what Fisher calls food insecure. That is, they don’t know where their next meal will come from. “I’ve always felt passionate about seeing that everyone has access to fresh produce, no matter where they are financially,” says Fisher. Fisher donates produce to the food pantry at Global River Church as well as to food pantries throughout the area. Every week between eighty and 110 cars collect food from the church’s
