100 Humans & More Land Than Ever: Viva Farms Updates
by Elma Burnham, Viva Farms Communications Manager
Viva Farms had a busy summer! After opening the Barn at Viva Farms to farmers earlier this year, we continued to grow into the new multi-use farm facility with farmers filling the cooler, produce trucks pulling in and out most days, and completing construction on the upstairs community space. And in July, we finally closed on a land purchase in King County!
We are expanding in place, purchasing 52 acres of agricultural land in Woodinville, WA with funding provided by the King County Conservation Futures grant program. Previously, the Viva Farms King County site was just ten acres, smaller than the Viva Farms Skagit County’s original site, but with just as many farm businesses incubating on smaller parcels.
Learn more about Viva Farms King County here.
In total, Viva Farms is supporting 36 farms between the two locations; together, farmers are managing nearly 200 acres of organic farmland on and off site. Later this fall, about thirty students will graduate from the Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture.
Rob Smith, Executive Director of Viva Farms.
Excluding eaters, Viva Farms is a community of almost 100 humans, including incubating farmers, their farm’s employees, staff, board, and students between our two locations in Skagit and King County. Excitingly, the ties that bond Viva Farms to the Co-op, and to the Skagit, are many. You’ll often see Viva Farms incubators and alumni being featured on the weekly fresh produce lists. Earlier this year, some incubating farms received support from the Farm-to-Food Bank Initiative funded through the Co-op’s Growing Good Fund.
We are a community-focused organization, and all of the 100 or so humans who make up Viva Farms participate in other corners of local community too: they have students in schools, volunteer on boards, shop at the Co-op, have library cards, donate produce to the food bank and to Skagit Gleaners. You might recognize more of them than you think!
Including… Rob Smith! We are delighted to share that Rob has recently been named the Executive Director of Viva Farms! Following Michael Frazier’s resignation after twelve years of integral leadership, the Viva Farms’ Board of Directors named Rob as the Interim Executive Director in June and voted to confirm his position as permanent in August.
Many of you may already know Rob. He has served on the Co-op Board since 2014, having served as Treasurer, Secretary, and on numerous committees across the tenure of three General Managers. Please join us in congratulating Rob on this next step at Viva Farms as you see him around town, and thank both him and Michael for their years of service strengthening food systems in our community and region!
You can get in touch with Rob and the rest of the team at Viva Farms at info@vivafarms.org. Thank you, Co-op members, staff, and farmers for all your support!
Viva Farms is a nonprofit farm business training program and incubator farm with locations in both Skagit and King County. Our mission is to empower aspiring and limited-resource farmers by providing bilingual (Spanish-English) training in holistic organic farming practices, as well as access to land, infrastructure, equipment, marketing, capital and community. We are growing farmers, community, and food.
Learn more at vivafarms.org or call 360.969.7191 x 804