Meet Jennifer Clark, Farmer at Roots Farm

My son was born with complex health challenges. In trying to heal him through food, we began healing ourselves, too. What started as growing food for our family’s health slowly became something bigger: growing food for our community. I realized this was not just a lifestyle. It was a calling.

Most people see the vegetables at harvest, but not the infrastructure and labor behind them. It is hauling thousands of pounds of food waste in the rain, turning compost in freezing temperatures, unclogging irrigation lines in the mud, repairing equipment after long days, and lifting heavy bins again and again. It is managing worm systems, monitoring soil health, and constantly adjusting to weather shifts.

It’s also hours at a desk writing grants, tracking expenses, collecting data, scheduling volunteers, and planning crops months in advance.

Farming is hard, dirty, cold, physical work, and it is not glamorous. It is early mornings, sore muscles, and working through heat waves and storms. But that unseen work builds healthy soil and keeps food moving to families who need it. The harvest is just the visible tip of a deep, demanding iceberg.

Farmers face battles on many fronts, and we depend on forces we cannot control. Extreme weather patterns are becoming more difficult: hotter summers, heavier rain events, longer dry spells. Funding shifts and change in food purchasing programs also directly affect small farms that supply food banks. Input costs continue to rise. Small farms operate on thin margins, so even small policy or market changes can have large impacts. Farming is not just growing food. It is navigating risk every day while still showing up for our community.

Some say if you choose to farm, you are also choosing to be a gambler, betting against heat, cold, pests, crop failures, and unpredictable markets. On the hardest days, I choose optimism. I keep a sense of humor. I remember why we do this: to feed people, build resilience, and create something meaningful that lasts beyond a single season.