Who We Are

Rise & Root Farm is a QT+BIPOC centered farm, founded on love, chosen family, and commitment to social justice. We center care in everything we do: for the land, ourselves, each other, and our wider communities. We work to uproot underlying systems of oppression in order to create liberation.

Located on Lenape land in Chester, NY, Rise & Root Farm is a five-acre farm, run cooperatively by four owners who are women, intergenerational, multi-racial, and LGBTQ+. We’re located in the Black Dirt region of Orange County, NY, and are part of the Chester Agricultural Center.

We are blessed to steward the land we grow on and to have the opportunity to support our communities through farming. We invite people, especially from the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, to come to the farm through a variety of events, and find a welcoming agricultural space.

We are strongly rooted in New York City and committed to engaging rural and urban communities through food and farming. We have worked with community gardens and urban farms in NYC and beyond, and we have dedicated our lives to increasing the number of people growing and eating good food.

We came together with a common dream, to continue our food justice work by growing food and community beyond the city boundaries. We believe we can accomplish more together than any one of us could do on our own.

What We Do

Rise & Root Farm is not just a farm—it is a movement toward food and land sovereignty, underscoring support for historically underserved communities, including QT+BIPOC rural and urban communities. Our commitment to equitable land and food access drives our work, from regenerative agricultural production to food justice advocacy, innovative distribution networks, and farmer trainings. Each year, about 1000 people visit Rise & Root Farm to learn, connect, and celebrate as we build a just and sustainable food system.

By hosting on-farm workshops, skill-sharing events, and farm education programs, we equip beginning farmers, food system stakeholders, students, and activists with the knowledge and tools to grow food regeneratively, increase access to fresh and healthy food, and develop cooperative distribution models that dismantle urban food apartheid.

For a decade, we have lived into our commitments to food sovereignty and equitable land access by:

Providing fresh produce to organizations such as the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, Guild of St. Margaret, Corbin Hill Food Project, and The Campaign Against Hunger to provide free healthy food to communities in the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, and Middletown
Growing seedlings so people can tend food in their homes, community gardens, and public spaces, partnering with organizations such as the Guild of St. Margaret, GreenThumb, and the New York Restoration Project
Engaging young people in on-farm workshops to discover how food is raised and understand the social justice implications of food and farming
Founding the BQE Hub (BIPOC Queer Expressway) to aggregate and distribute products from small QT+BIPOC-owned farms to larger wholesale markets
Sharing resources on cooperative farming structures, financial models, governance, and collective land and resource ownership

Why Now

We are deeply humbled, honored, and grateful to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with you! We wouldn't be here tending the land without your steadfast support over the years. Despite all the beautiful things to celebrate, it's been a tough year so far. The federal funding freeze and the effects of climate change have hit farmers pretty hard and we're no exception. We have lost $110k in federal funding and see no pathway to renew funding in the coming years due to discriminatory cuts to grants supporting underserved farmers.

In defiance of the dominant powers that threaten to erase us, we are thrilled to celebrate this enormous milestone with you in times like this. Now more than ever, our communities will keep us together and see us through this storm.

Today, we officially launch our fundraising campaign to celebrate our 10 year anniversary! We are raising $100k to:

Sustain our food access work to bring produce to communities in New York City and Orange County
Support our full transition to a formal worker-owned cooperative
Grow our educational programming for aspiring QT+BIPOC farmers and young people
Create more supports for farmer mental health and wellness, and
Expand the BIPOC Queer Expressway food hub initiative for 12-15 QT+BIPOC farms

Your support will ensure that we expand access to critical resources and collaborative networks that empower historically marginalized communities to reclaim autonomy over their food, their farms, their land.

In solidarity,

Michaela, Karen, Lorrie, and Jane

Rise & Root 10th Anniversary Campaign

Rise in Joy, Root in Legacy

Team Members