Suburban farm providing boost to Indiana food pantries
FISHERS, Ind. (AP) - Two farm workers from Puerto Rico will be staying far away from the U.S. territory when the Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1.
Brothers Juan Ramone, 40, and Rafael Ramone, 45, instead will be toiling on a 32-acre plot of farmland in Fishers, growing tomatoes and cucumbers for local food pantries.
"They are farming ninjas, they did everything by hand in Puerto Rico, and they are perfectionists," said Brandywine Creek Farms owner Jonathan Lawler.
The brothers came to Indiana two months ago seeking relief from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in 2017. The Category 5 storm caused floods and power outages, and it destroyed the Ramone family's coffee bean farm. More than 135,000 Puerto Ricans so far have relocated stateside from the island, according to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (Centro) in New York City.
A Ramone relative contacted Lawler after reading of his urban farms, which now number three, as well as his 77-acre Greenfield family farm.
Lawler was impressed by the Ramones' farming know-how and chagrined by the loss of their 5-acre livelihood. He invited the brothers to work the Fishers farm, and they are now living with him in Greenfield. Lawler is making plans to bring their families to Indiana and set them up with their own Brandywine Farm to operate.
"We are looking at some schools for the children," Lawler said.
But first, the team is working on getting the Fishers farm running. It's Lawler's latest and most ambitious effort to fight hunger in Central Indiana.
Fishers Agripark, on the southeast corner of 113th Street and Florida Avenue, is expected to bring the total of donated food each year by Brandywine to over 1 million pounds.
"Our goal is to increase access to fresh, healthy foods to fight hunger in areas that don't usually have access," Lawler said.
In Fishers, Brandywine has already seeded 5,000 tomatoes (soon to be 20,000), 15,000 watermelons and seven rows of kale. The farms will also grow bell peppers, pumpkins and cucumbers and will feature a community garden, livestock, a market, wildflower field and honeybees on about 8 acres.
Fishers had planned a traditional park at the site when a mutual friend introduced Mayor Scott Fadness to Lawler. Fadness, who grew up on a farm in North Dakota, thought it was a good educational opportunity for children in Hamilton County, besides a chance to serve those in need.
"We want to make the educational component as interactive as possible, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of school field trips out here," said Deputy Mayor Leah McGrath. Fishers provides the land and Brandywine is responsible for farming it, donating a percentage of the crop and running the educational programs.
The Agripark will send a third of its output to Good Samaritan Network in Fishers, which will distribute it to 46 food pantries in Hamilton County and at regular mobile food sites. The rest of Brandywine's output will be sold wholesale or retail, with some helping Indianapolis food pantries.
"This will increase the amount of food we distribute across the board," said Nancy Chance, Good Samaritan Network executive director. The network feeds about 40,900 families and gets large donations from Gleaners and MIdwest food banks to feed a growing population of those in need in Hamilton County.
"It's not getting any better," Chance said. "It got bad about 2010 and has been horrible ever since. A lot of people need two jobs just to get enough to eat for their families."
That observation was how Lawler got involved with the food pantries to begin with in 2015. He said he was shocked one day when his son came home from his Greenfield-area school and said families there relied on food pantries.
"That ticked me off," he said. "I couldn't believe this was happening in rural communities, surrounded by farmland. My wife (Amanda) and I then started looking into hunger."
They discovered that about 1 in 8 people in Central and southeastern Indiana face hunger; about to 1 in 6 in Marion County, according to Gleaners Food Bank.
The couple soon formed Brandywine Creek as a nonprofit and now run a 7-acre farm at the The Finish Line's corporate headquarters property, near 30th Street and Mitthoeffer Road, and a 1.3-acre farm at Flanner House, 25th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
The Lawlers have also partnered with Community Health Network and Hancock Health on mobile food farms that travel around Indianapolis. Other partners are AARP, the Ruth Lilly Philanthropic Fund, the city of Cumberland, Patriot Insurance and the Kubota Tractor Corp.
Lawler said his newest partners, the Ramones, are fitting right in.
"They are from rural areas and are truly farmers," he said. "They know cattle, as well. This operation was not a problem for them. And they call me 'Jefe.' I think that means 'boss.' "
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Source: The Indianapolis Star
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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com