-
The Farm School mission is to connect people to the land. We are an organization of multiple interweaving programs spread out over almost 400 acres of land in rural Mass, linked together under our common purpose and stewardship. In order to best achieve its mission, racial equity and liberation has become a central goal for the organization.
Our Program for Visiting Schools provides multi-day, residential, school-year and summer farm programs for over 1,500 young people and their teachers each year. Our typical program is a two and a half day field trip for middle schoolers, in which we task the students with running all the aspects of the farm: cooking the meals, and working in the garden, forest and barn with the animals. Children are given the opportunity to experience their own capacity to contribute to the farm.
Our Chicken Coop Middle School is an onsite, full-time, one-room home school cooperative for local kids. Students attend classes with our teachers on the farm everyday. Farm life, art and music classes run alongside math, literature, social studies and science.
Our suite of New Programs look to build even deeper connections to the land for the students we serve, for the communities they come from and by and for the Nipmuc People, who are among the original people of the land upon which the farm rests.
Diversity and Inclusion Statement unanimously adopted by The Farm School Board Of Directors Dec. 2, 2017:
“A natural outgrowth of the Farm School’s core value of kindness is our commitment to making diversity and active inclusion part of our community and organizational culture. We define active inclusion as conscious and substantial efforts by The Farm School administration to value, welcome, recruit, serve and empower people of all races and ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, and ages, within our organization, programs and support community.”
-
STAFF
The people that breathe life into The Farm School every day.
Michael Bonilla Del Rio
Patrick Connors
Keely Curliss
Elin Dahal
Wendy Davenport
John JD Deloatch
Emma Dooley
Miranda Fisher
Cristina Garcia
Ayla Gavins
Grace GG Glasson
David Graham
Nia Holley
Coco King
Sandra Langmandel
Carmen Mouzon
Rebecca Orlando
Taylor Pauls
Josh Pincus
Warren Rice
Piper Rosenberg
Ali Soofi
Bradley Teeter
Spencer Thompson
Kristen WilsonBOARD OF DIRECTORS The kind group that works in the larger world to make The Farm School possible.
Abdi Ali
Glenda Colon (Chair)
David Graham (Staff rep)
Desiree Ivey
Aly Lopez
Amina Michel Lord
Carmen Mouzon (President)
Joshua Pincus (Staff rep)
Jeannie Ramey
Caitlin Sargent
Molly St. ClairSTAFF
The people that work behind the scenes to guide the farm school’s operations.
Ayla Gavins, Development/Storytelling
Long time friend of The Farm School, board member and former leader of a visiting school, Ayla joined The Farm School staff in the fall of 2019. She loves the meaningful work of the farm, the conscientious team, the beauty of the animals, the energy and wonder of the children.Michael Bonilla Del Rio, Assistant Vegetable Farmer for the Program for Visiting Schools
Michael was born on the east of the Island of Quisqueya, in La Romana, Dominican Republic. A lot of his time was spent outside at his family’s farm helping in whatever activities a young kid could be involved in, planting crops, rounding up and moving cows on a horse to different grazing fields. In the city he stayed busy with school and sports, either swimming and/or volleyball. Then in 2010, he moved to Rhode Island where he attended university. In 2017, he graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a B.S. in Environmental & Natural Resources Econ, with a deep passion for food access and the outdoors. Soon after graduating, he joined the Peace Corps in Ethiopia to serve a community of farming families for 2 years. In Ethiopia he got to do a lot of work with bees, chickens and nutrition. Now super excited to continue to work with the land, youth and an amazing, diverse group of people.Patrick Connors, Facilities and Operations Director
Having participated in the early years of the Learn to Farm program as a student farmer, Patrick returned to lead The Farm School in 2007, after farming in California.Sandra Langmandel, Summer Program Coordinator, Database Manager and Bookkeeper
Sandra has been at the farm a very long time. She works in the office, and she loves the kindness and family feel of the farm.Rebecca Orlando, IT & Outreach Coordinator
Rebecca was born and raised in a small coastal town in Puerto Rico. As a child she remembers watching Star Trek with her uncle; and her interest in science and technology ensued.
She is grateful to have been given an opportunity to work with such an amazing group of people and be a part of The Farm School’s mission. She hopes to continue to find ways that science and technology can make our lives easier here!Bradley Teeter, Forestry, Draft Animals, Grounds
Bradley came from Alabama in 2002 to be a summer camp counselor at the Farm School and ended up in the first Learn to Farm class. He has never really left. He loves that we are a tight family and community, always eating our meals together and taking care of this ridgetop. Among his many tasks, Brad truly enjoys his work with the draft horses logging and in the fields.Kristen Wilson, Crop Manager/Co-Program director
Before coming to The Farm School, Kristen co-managed a 350-member CSA and farm business for seven seasons. Here at the farm, she loves to be a part of a kind, openhearted community, where she can teach and learn all at the same time. She is so excited to be passing on the important knowledge of growing, harvesting, cooking, and eating your own food.If you are a reporter or press outlet hoping to include the Farm School in a story or article, please contact Patrick Connors, patrick@farmschool.org, to arrange for comments, visits, and photography. Photographs on the right of this page may be downloaded at higher resolutions. Photo credit: Erik Jacobs, Plough and Stars Project.
The Farm School has been featured in many articles in recent years. Take a look below to see the range of what we do through the eyes of writers, students and photographers.
Connecting to Land, Reflections from the Farm School. Taproot Magazine: Preserve, summer issue 2016. By Learn to Farm alumni and current Farm School staff member Caitlin Sargent. (Issues available in bookstores and health food stores nationally now and also for purchase on the Taproot website www.taprootmag.com)
A Day in the Life of Sugar Maple Tappers, The HuffingtonPost visits the Farm School during Maple Sugaring season. March, 2015
2013 Learn to Farm Graduate Erik Jacob’s regular articles about the Learn to Farm program in the Boston Globe:
- January 1, 2013 – Letter from Farm School
- February 5, 2013 – Spring seems far away
- March 26, 2013 – Farm School apprentices prepare for spring
- May 13, 2013 – Dug in and flat out: planting time
- December 3, 2013 – Apprentice’s year comes to an end
Erik’s pictures featured on NPR’s the picture show, In Search of Sunrise: A Photographer Heads to Farm School, November 22, 2012.
The US professionals quitting the rat race to become farmers, BBC, August 28, 2013
At The Farm School, Making The Leap From The Boardroom To The Cornfield. A piece by WGBH news featuring our student farmers and alumna Laura Sackton, founder of First Root Farm in Concord.
Former Program Director, Reid Bryant, writes about the Program for Visiting Schools in Northern Woodlands, At Work and at Play in the Northeastern Forest, February 24, 2012.
PBS’ crew of Growing a Greener World enrolls for a week at The Farm School’s Learn to Farm program, December 1, 2011.
The Learn to Farm program in the Boston Globe, Tough road to reap, August 24, 2011.
Article about the Learn To Farm program in the Pacific Standard, March 10, 2011.
The Learn to Farm program in the Boston Globe, Magna cum carrot, November 3, 2010.
Check out The Farm School’s adult program in Farming Magazine, May 2010.
Farm School Director and Learn to Farm Graduate, Patrick Connors, in UNH Magazine, Fall 2008.
A Year in the Learn to Farm program, Edible Boston, 2008
A 4-part Series
Download as pdfs:Student Blogs and Photographs
Deeply Rooted by current student farmer Suzannah Holsenbeck (Learn to Farm ’16)
Dirt Eaters by past student farmer Brian Massey (Learn to Farm ’14)
The DotPages by past student farmer and current farmer/teacher at the Program for Visiting Schools, Dottie Arnold (Learn to Farm ’14)
One full year from a student’s perspective – Plough and Stars project by Erik Jacobs (2012-13).
Farm School Annual Newsletters
Thanks for your interest in joining the staff at the Farm School!
The Farm School (www.farmschool.org) is a non-profit educational farm that has been helping people connect to the land since 1989. The Farm School is situated on nearly 400 acres in Athol, Massachusetts and offers three and five-day programs for visiting school groups and their teachers, a full-time middle school for local children, and a year-long farmer training program for adults. Students that come to the Program for Visiting Schools range in age from 2nd -12th grade. You can find out more about the program here.
Current Openings:
Program for Visiting Schools (PVS) Nourishment Team – Cook Teacher
Jobs are frequently posted on social media, so we encourage you to like our Facebook page, follow us on Instagram, and check our website often.
We serve diverse communities of students and we are striving to develop a staff that reflects that. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply to our open positions. The Farm School does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, sex, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in any of its school administered policies or programs.
Other Openings:
We regularly have openings for one year Farmer Teacher positions in our Visiting Schools Program and Summer Staff positions for our Summer Programs. Jobs are frequently posted on social media, so we encourage you to like our Facebook page, follow us on Instagram, and check our website often.
We serve diverse communities of students and we are striving to develop a staff that reflects that. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply to our open positions. The Farm School does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, sex, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in any of its school administered policies or programs.
Diversity and Inclusion Statement unanimously adopted by The Farm School Board Of Directors Dec. 2, 2017:
“A natural outgrowth of the Farm School’s core value of kindness is our commitment to making diversity and active inclusion part of our community and organizational culture. We define active inclusion as conscious and substantial efforts by The Farm School administration to value, welcome, recruit, serve and empower people of all races and ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, and ages, within our organization, programs and support community.”
Come visit us on the Farm!
Driving directions from Boston:Take Route 2 West past Templeton. Not long after you pass the exits for Templeton, Route 2 will narrow from 4 lanes to 2. Shortly after that, take Exit 18 for ATHOL (marked: Athol, Route 2A). At the end of the ramp, go LEFT onto Route 2A west. Follow 2A down through Athol straight through the center of town (about 3 miles). Cross the bridge and turn RIGHT just before the “Country Convenience” store onto Mt. Pleasant Street. After a couple of hundred yards, bear RIGHT at the first Y in the road towards North Orange, and proceed with the graveyard to your left and river on your right. After about 3/4 of a mile, turn LEFT onto Brooks Road, take your next LEFT and go steeply up Moore Hill Road. Continue RIGHT at the turn onto Sentinel Elm Road, a dirt road. Finally, follow the sign for Farm School Parking into the lot on the right and walk up to the bunkhouse on the hill.
Directions from the West:
Take Route 2 East to Exit 16. Turn RIGHT at the bottom of the exit ramp onto Daniel Shays Highway, 202. Continue until the road makes a T next to McDonald’s and turn RIGHT (which puts you on Rt. 2A in Athol traveling east). In about a mile, just after the “Country Convenience” store on the left, take a LEFT on Mt. Pleasant Street and head towards North Orange. After a couple of hundred yards, bear RIGHT at the first Y in the road, and proceed with the graveyard to your left and river on your right. After about 3/4 of a mile, turn LEFT onto Brooks Road and take your next LEFT and go steeply up Moore Hill Road. After the road levels out and takes a sharp right it becomes Sentinel Elm Road, a dirt road. Finally, follow the sign for Farm School Parking into the lot on the right and walk up to the bunkhouse at the top of the driveway (directly across from the big white barn).
Partners
Mt. Grace Land Trust: Mt. Grace is a central Mass regional land trust that is a founding member of the Greater Quabbin Food Alliance and has partnered with the Farm School and many other regional farms to make land purchase feasible and protect agricultural resources in the region. Jammie Pottern, Mt. Grace land conservation specialist, is a Learn to Farm graduate.
Fruition Seeds: The Farm School’s Learn to Farm Program has partnered with Fruition Seeds, a wonderful values-based seed company in the Finger Lakes that focuses on regionally adapted seeds, to grow specific varieties of seed for their product catalogue. Kim Rich, seed saver at Fruition, is a Learn to Farm graduate.
Spannocchia Foundation: Spannocchia encourages global dialogue about sustaining cultural landscapes for future generations through the example of the Tenuta di Spannocchia. Many Farm School Student Farmers and staff have visited and participated in Spannocchia programming in the past.
Center for Agriculture Food and the Environment: The UMASS Ag Extension Office works to support the Farm School’s commercial vegetable production through trainings in Integrated Pest Management, field walks, pest scouting and research.
Farm Based Education Association: The Farm School is a founding member of the Farm Based Education Association, whose work is to inspire, nurture and promote farm-based education.
Common Grow: Learn to Farm Alumni and lawyer Richard Cavanaugh runs Common Grow, working with farmers and other landholders, home buyers, government, and non-profit agencies to identify, preserve, and/or reclaim farm land. Rich assisted The Farm School with its project to purchase and protect a 95-acre parcel that bridges its two farms and also now provides housing opportunities for its staff.
The David Wax Museum: wonderful band, has performed for our benefit concert three times. We love them!
Hennrietta’s Table: Chef Peter’s incredible farm to table restaurant at the Charles Hotel, wonderful, generous hosts of our annual Big Pig Gig.
Iggy’s Bread of the World: The bakery in Cambridge whose bread is a mainstay of our diet at the farm. Wonderful hosts of our Cambridge MA farm share distribution site, and generous suppliers delicious bread!
Friends
Pie Ranch
Common Ground High School
Hawthorne Valley Association and Farm
The Food Project
Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Soul Fire Farm
The Farm School is located in rural, north-central Massachusetts straddling the towns of Orange and Athol, MA, with the dormitory for the Program for Visiting Schools at Sentinel Elm Farm and the schoolhouse for the Chicken Coop School at Maggie’s Farm.
Map Projection UTM Zone 18 N, NAD 83. Contour Interval 10 feet. Digital Elevation Model from MassGIS. Using: ArcGIS Version 10.2 and Adobe Creative Suite 5The Farm School
488 Moore Hill Road
Athol, MA 01331
978.249.2656Strategic Planning Director and Program for Visiting Schools
Carmen Mouzon
978.249.2656
carmen@farmschool.orgDevelopment/Storytelling
Ayla Gavins
978.249.2656
ayla@farmschool.orgFacilities and Operations Director
Patrick Connors
978.249.2656
patrick@farmschool.orgSummer Program and Bookkeeping
Sandra Langmandel
978.249.2656
sandra@farmschool.orgThe Chicken Coop School
Wendy Davenport
978.249.2656
wendy@farmschool.orgGraphic Design
Tim Barrett Creative
www.timbarrett.com
tim@timbarrett.com
About
the Farm School
Please get in touch and come visit
