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Paul Clever prepares to plant cabbage plants in new soil on GoodEarth Farm on Saturday, March 16. The residents of Good Earth Farm try to connect themselves and the community to the land by sustaining themselves and those in need with food grown on plots at Good Earth.

Volunteers, farmers donate copious crops

A timeworn house, neighbored by an expanse of land that feeds an abundance of crops and livestock, is filled with the clinking of silverware and the scuffling of its residents. They’re preparing a breakfast plucked from the yard before starting the day’s rotation of chores.

This is the scene that plays out daily at Good Earth Farm, beginning at 6:30 a.m. and ending at that same hour each evening, said Paul Clever, who started the nonprofit in December 2008 with his wife, Sarah.

The small business is weathering its sixth growing season, having donated about 10,000 pounds of fresh food to donation stations each year since its inception.

The farm provided about 15 to 20 pounds of food every two weeks this past summer to Nelsonville Community Center, said Rhonda Bentley, director of the center. Most farms such as Clever’s stock the shelves at local food pantries with four main crops — green beans, potatoes, squash and sweet corn, Clever said. Good Earth Farm supplies local pantries with a wider variety, including kale, spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes, okra and eggplant, all grown at its plot of land at 10011 Armitage Road.

“That’s a lot of food,” Bentley said. “Not only were they bringing garden food, but they were providing free Friday lunch.”

Nelsonville Community Center serves meals to feed anywhere from 30 to 100 people, Bentley said, adding that the center doesn’t have any regular funding. The center offers free lunches every Friday that are open to anyone.

“Any time food is provided, it’s a big deal,” she said.

Though Good Earth Farm has been able to regularly provide food for at least two years to several places in Athens County, the small business grew from humble roots.

Clever said he left his most lucrative job in farming to begin the business in Athens with his wife, who was then an adjunct faculty member at Hocking College. They began building on the idea of Good Earth Farm without tools, money or land to bring their business model to fruition.

The building that now houses Paul, Sarah, their daughter and a rotating door of more than 500 volunteers a year belonged to residents Robert and Margaret DePue. Paul said he wrote the DePue family a letter outlining the business plan before requesting to use their land to cultivate food for donation.

“They called back two days later and said, ‘When can you start?’ ” Clever said.

“(It’s) an act of generosity and trust that kind of still catches my breath, and they continue to be really big partners.”

Within a year and a half, Clever said he began seeing substantial growth at the farm.

“Before we knew it, we went from a quarter of an acre to 10 acres in production,” he said. “We went from just my wife and I to 11 people living here at the farm.”

In addition to its 11 live-in volunteers, Good Earth Farm welcomes at least 10 volunteers each Saturday.

They are invited to a lunch at noon before resuming their work again at 2:30 p.m., Clever said. At the end of each day, Clever added that the volunteer group is invited to a Eucharist ceremony, though it’s not a requirement for the volunteers.

“One part of our mission and what we do is grow food and donate it,” Clever said. “The other is we’re a religious community in the Episcopal Church associated with the Church of the Good Shepherd here locally.”

Clever said he looks for volunteers who are committed to the land.

“It’s been an expressed goal not to create any boundaries for the people to come here,” he said. “Certainly people from any religious background or no religious background are welcome.”

Good Earth Farm also provides donations to the Donation Station, which delivers food weekly to food pantries and social service agencies in Athens County.

“They would show up out of the blue at the market with big boxes of produce, so that was always wonderful to see that,” said Erik Peterson, program director of the Donation Station. “We’re just one of the ways (Good Earth Farm) has a positive impact on the community.”

Last year, Clever was able to provide about 220 pounds of fresh produce to the Donation Station, Peterson said.

“We really try to showcase stuff that we’ve grown,” Clever noted. “We take a lot of pride … in really providing good food for folks.”

To volunteer with Good Earth Farm or find out more ways to help, call (740) 594-2425 or visit facebook.com/goodearthfarm.

sg409809@ohiou.edu

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