Hannah Conner and Joey Soto began pursuing their lifelong dream of growing and sharing fresh, healthy produce in 2019 by renting sections of other people’s farms. As first-generation farmers, they found it difficult to secure a plot of land to call their own.
But that changed three years ago when they moved to their permanent home in Cream Ridge, thanks to a Community Supported Agriculture member who was looking to sell her property. Today, Ramblin Sol Farm is certified organic, certified Real Organic, and produces more than 50 different crops – everything from eggplants to tomatoes to leafy greens.
Through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA), a statewide, USDA-funded program that CFBNJ administers, Ramblin Sol provides 100 fresh produce boxes per week to three Fulfill (the food bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties) partner pantries. CFBNJ uses LFPA funds from the NJDA to buy food from New Jersey farmers and producers for distribution in underserved communities in all 21 counties.
“Coming from farm labor backgrounds, we know what it’s like to be on state benefits. Providing food for pantries is meaningful because we knew when we started the farm that we wanted to make our food accessible to everyone,” Hannah and Joey told us.
They also appreciate the boost that LFPA has given their business.
“LFPA has helped us answer some of the financial questions we’ve had. Our biggest challenge right now is stability,” they said. “We love growing food, but the logistics of getting the food to the right people are complicated, so LFPA is really helping us out with that. The program has allowed us to scale up and meet our costs and completely change the finances of the farm.”
Thanks to the financial benefits that LFPA provides, Hannah and Joey were able to hire their very first employees – local people with lots of experience farming. Though Ramblin Sol is small, Hannah and Joey can’t plant and harvest everything they grow without a few extra sets of hands.
“We want to keep our employees coming back every year,” they said. “We want them to rise with us because they’re really important to us. They’re making this whole operation function.”
Hannah and Joey have big dreams for Ramblin Sol’s future. They hope to develop a succession plan and put one of their employees into a management position so that the farm will stay productive and feed the neighborhood for a long time to come. Ramblin Sol is part woman-owned and part Latino-owned, and Hannah and Joey are excited that LFPA is working to put New Jersey farmers on the map.
“LFPA is creating this unique opportunity where we can help others that are less represented in the agricultural community to be able to contribute to the food system so that we can really have a healthy, thriving local food economy,” they shared.