Our News

2 Jun, 2021

Developing your personal giving story

By |2023-03-17T13:49:33+00:00June 2, 2021|Donors, Newsletter|0 Comments

Photo Credits: Corey Easterday

Corey Easterday had always been involved in the nonprofit world but when he moved to the Queen City, he ached to connect with the social good community and later found that his support for Carolina Farm Trust was more than a one-time donation.

Corey Easterday did not always grow up having everything at his disposal. In fact, his reality was the opposite. Born and raised in northeast Ohio, he wouldn’t describe himself as growing up poor, but it did not take away from the fact that his family faced financial hardships throughout his life. 

“My family grew up in a poverty situation for a lot of my formative years, and it was […]

5 Apr, 2021

Farmer Spotlight: Meet Christina Benton – A farmer whose purpose is to improve food access

By |2021-04-06T00:49:29+00:00April 5, 2021|Farmers, Fruits, Newsletter, Spring, Vegetables|0 Comments

Photo Courtesy of Christina Benton

Spring brings light and hope, a much-needed sentiment after last year’s gloomy anxiousness for our health and well-being of our loved ones, as well as the threatening worries of our country’s economic condition.

Many of us struggled as we saw, or even experienced first-hand, the already unjust structures of our current food system hitting economically distressed communities, low-income households, and Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color with the hardest blow. 

But, just as spring brings light, there are also luminaries who shed the light of kindness when it’s most needed. 

When you meet Christina Benton, you meet a farmer who not only grows a traditional market farm but goes beyond to think about who might receive her produce on the other end. Her […]

9 Mar, 2023

Night At The Museum

By |2023-03-17T13:55:03+00:00March 9, 2023|Events|0 Comments

Night At The Museum

This is the 4th Annual Night At The Museum presented by Carolina Farm Trust, and quickly becoming a highlight of the Spring Season for most. The event features local chefs and mixologists, who master their craft with food sourced from urban farms around the Carolinas. Purchasing a ticket for this event not only guarantees you delicious food and drinks, but an opportunity to gather amongst fellow humanitarians and supporters of the sustainability initiative that is catching fire within the United States.

All who join us on this night has made a physical pledge, in one way or another, to the mission of sustainable and equitable food production. At Carolina Farm Trust, we envision thriving farms, healthy people, and communities intimately connected to their food and where it comes from. With the purchase of your Night At The Museum ticket, you’re allowing us […]

27 Aug, 2020

Partnership Announcement: The Urban Farm at Aldersgate

By |2020-09-09T10:47:23+00:00August 27, 2020|Farmers, News|0 Comments

We are thrilled and honored to announce a new partnership at the Urban Farm at Aldersgate. Wisdom and Cherie Jzar, founders and owners of Deep Roots CPS Farm, will manage the Urban Farm at Aldersgate over the next 6 months as we develop a longer-term transition plan. Under Wisdom and Cherie’s mentorship, Sam Hargrove will help manage the daily operations of the farm. 

Carolina Farm Trust and Deep Roots CPS Farm share the goal of ensuring equitable access to healthy, fresh, and affordable foods. The alignment of our work will undoubtedly potentiate the multitude of benefits that the Urban Farm can bring to Charlotte’s East Side. In addition, we at Carolina Farm Trust are excited to support Wisdom and Cherie as they usher in Sam as a Black farmer working in urban agriculture. 

Wisdom and Cherie bring to the farm […]

3 May, 2018

Aldersgate and Carolina Farm Trust Sow Seeds For Eastside Charlotte Residents

By |2020-09-09T10:47:23+00:00May 3, 2018|Press|0 Comments

Urban Farm – a concept that will be celebrated at a June 7 dinner – is designed to nourish, educate and inspire a whole community

Charlotte, N.C., (May 3, 2018) – Aldersgate and Carolina Farm Trust are collaborating on a major agricultural and cultural initiative that will continue the Aldersgate-led transformation of Charlotte’s east side. The nonprofit, 6.7-acre Urban Farm at Aldersgate will serve as a food source – and learning lab – for the eastside community and beyond. Both EBT and SNAP will be accepted, ensuring the working (and year-round) farm is truly a resource for all. Plans call for the first seeds to be planted this spring and for the farm to be operational by fall.

Aldersgate’s mission goes beyond serving the elders who call the 231-acre campus home. It includes engaging the community’s neighbors.

“Part of our mission at Aldersgate is […]

2 Oct, 2017

Carolina Farm Trust Filling Gaps In The Local Food Movement Through Carolina Jubilee Music Festival

By |2020-09-09T10:47:23+00:00October 2, 2017|Carolina Jubilee, News|0 Comments

Any given farmers market parking lot contains a familiar spattering of bumper stickers: “Buy Local.” “Support Your Local Farmer.” And for Mike Smith of Big Oak Farm in Cabarrus County, none of them are the answer.

“Demand has outpaced supply for at least 10 years now, ever since we started doing farmers markets,” he says. Smith, whose family has been farming on the same land for over 150 years, has the market to sustainably expand his operation, with locavores and farm-to-table restaurants clamoring for his pastured beef and pork.

But rapid development and resulting rising land prices stand in his way– and threaten the area’s local food supply.  

“Once you start putting down concrete,” he says, “it’s never going to go back to farmland again.”

Zack Wyatt, a Northern Virginia farm kid turned Charlotte transplant, began noticing the Carolinas’ disappearing farmland after reading local blogger […]

12 Aug, 2017

Carolina Jubilee Is A Lot More Than A Music Festival

By |2020-09-09T10:47:23+00:00August 12, 2017|Carolina Jubilee, News|0 Comments

“Tucked into the heart of the Carolinas at VanHoy Farms in Harmony, NC is this year’s Carolina Jubilee festival, September 29 and 30. The third annual festival is the project of the Carolina Farm Trust, an organization whose mission is to improve the environmental sustainability of farming communities of the Carolinas. There will be 18 bands over the two days, along with food, drinks, and various other activities all from right in the region.

To truly understand the Carolina Jubilee, it is important to consider the initiatives of the Carolina Farm Trust which began just over two years ago in May of 2015. “I just started talking to the farmers and asking ‘What do you need? Is it a tractor; is it land?’ and then I began making all of these commitments that I had no idea how I would follow through on. So I needed a vehicle for that […]

16 Jul, 2017

Carolina Jubilee Supports Carolina Farm Trust

By |2020-09-09T10:47:23+00:00July 16, 2017|Carolina Jubilee, News|0 Comments

The Carolina Farm Trust helps farmers acquire equipment, lease or purchase land, protect farmland from development, and through creative marketing campaigns.

As the state’s leading dairy producer, Iredell County is an ideal location for the Trust’s signature fundraiser, the Carolina Jubilee.

The Jubilee will feature live local music, farm-fresh cuisine, local breweries and more. The event is set for Sept. 29-30 at VanHoy Farms in nearby Harmony.

Zack Wyatt, Carolina Farm Trust and Jubilee founder, said that the organization was looking for an agricultural center that could bridge the divide between rural and urban life.

“There is (no place) better than North Iredell County,” he said. “(The Jubilee) brings the region together to celebrate Carolina agriculture and put a spotlight on Carolina businesses that utilize Carolina farms as part of their supply chains.”

Wyatt is thankful for the consistency and support of the Jubilee’s numerous vendors, including small business and agriculture-based vendors, vineyards, and […]

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