We Dream Together - Help Grow a Stronger Local Food Community
Dear Friends of Working Food,
While 2025 had its challenges, it has also been a year full of dreaming, reflection, and strategic action. As we looked at our work and planned for the future, we understood that our greatest impact does not come from trying to do everything. Instead, it comes from leaning into our strengths, supporting and resourcing community partners, and investing our time and energy where they make the biggest difference. This year’s decisions weren’t always easy, but they led to transformative action and a vision for the future that is grounded, stable, and inspiring. When you support Working Food, you help turn these dreams into lasting impact.
Part of our vision included merging with the Gainesville Giving Garden to help steward the well-loved urban farm. Now, Working Food has a public space where we can continue to grow education, seed stewardship, and access to fresh, local food. After years of partnership, 18 months of careful planning, and countless conversations, it was clear that our skills and programs perfectly complemented one another. Together, we can imagine and take action on something bigger: connected, land-based opportunities that cultivate food, knowledge, and possibility for all.
2025 also brought unexpected challenges and clarity. Our kitchen was already struggling to meet the growing demand for food incubation services in Gainesville when an old pipe flooded our leased facility with sewage. This forced a month-long closure and interrupted programming during the busiest time of the year. This experience, combined with the ongoing vulnerability of growing food and seeds on leased or borrowed land, made it clear that we need a long-term solution. As a result, we made the difficult decision to relocate when our lease ends in 2027 and help the kitchen graduate to a new facility and management. These experiences strengthened our resolve, clarified what’s next for Working Food, and highlighted the need for a permanent, owned space.
Even amid these challenges, 2025 was a year of exciting firsts. We piloted our first youth summer camp, paid teen internships, and paid college apprenticeships. We began designing take-home activity kits and an online gardening school so learning could happen anywhere. We introduced walk-up days at the Giving Garden, making it easier for neighbors to access produce donations. We shifted our focus from the long-term operation of a commercial kitchen to the development of an online farmers market.
A shift made in response to farmers and artisans seeking new ways to sell their products along with neighbors looking for easier, more affordable access to local food. Together, these lessons strengthened our vision for a land-based home where all of our programs can come together without barriers or limits.
Our dream is a permanent farm campus, grounded in land we can rely on. Here, our urban farm, seed gardens, pollinator habitats, and food forests will exist in a connected space. It will be a place where youth can explore, learn, and grow; where community members can gather; where fresh, local food is easily accessible; and where partners can expand their own programs. This is more than a farm – it’s a living classroom, a connector for local food, and a place of stability and inspiration for everyone involved.
With this land, we can expand summer camps, launch weekly school field trips, and offer more paid opportunities for teens and young adults. We can double our seed research and production gardens, while increasing farm output for food donations. We can welcome the community to experience the magic of growing, sharing, and learning together. Stability will allow us to dream bigger, take bolder steps, and invest deeply in our community, our partners, and our land.
The world is full of uncertainty, but the land holds the power to anchor us, nourish us, and bring us together. By dreaming with us and investing in this vision, you help create a connected, resilient, and thriving local food web. One that benefits farmers, artisans, young people, families, and neighbors alike. Your support doesn’t just make this work possible: It multiplies impact across our entire community.
Dream with us. Donate today and help make this vision a reality.