Sisters Hill Farm
| Abstract | Located in the Hudson Valley (Stanfordville, New York), Sisters Hill Farm is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project of the Sisters of Charity of New York. The farm provides shareholders with five to fifteen pounds of fresh, organic vegetables every week from June to November. Shares are distributed at the farm and also at Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx. The farm staff publishes a weekly newsletter with creative recipies using part of the week’s harvest. The Sisters see the CSA project as a means to help restore the lost connection between people and agriculture by providing an opportunity for members to be directly connected to how their food is grown. “Community” is an important goal of Sisters Hill Farm as well: shareholders enjoy each other’s company on distribution days and at picnics held during the summer at the farm. In addition to growing healthy produce in an environmentally-responsible fashion, one of the main goals of Sisters Hill Farm is to donate approximately twenty-five percent of the harvest to soup kitchens and food pantries, meals-on-wheels programs, and needy families. Advocating on behalf of the poor for more than 180 years, the Sisters of Charity of New York understand this project to be a natural extension of their work. |
| Religion | Christianity (Roman Catholic) |
| Geographic Location | United States of America (Stanfordville, New York) |
| Duration of Project | 1997–Present |
| History |
The roots of the Sisters Hill Farm CSA project go back to 1917, when the Sisters of Charity of New York were willed the Stanfordville property that included a productive farm. The Sisters continued to oversee the farm until the 1940s, when the land was left fallow. In July of 1995, at the General Chapter of the Sisters of Charity, a vision statement was written calling on the congregation to focus its energies in the new millennium on three areas: the poor, women, and the Earth. Part of the statement calls the congregation “to reverence creation in a spirit of interconnectedness with all that is, living responsibly.” Soon after, a proposal was submitted to establish a CSA farm on the Stanfordville property as a tangible way of enacting this statement. With a grant from the congregation, a pilot project was launched in 1997, and the first season of Sisters Hill Farm officially began in 1999 with forty shareholders. Each year more shareholders have joined. As of 2004, 200 shareholders participate in the project. |
| Mission Statement | The Mission of Sisters Hill Farm is to grow healthy food which nurtures bodies, spirits, communities, and the Earth. |
| Partner Organizations | Meals on Wheels of Stanford, New York Lunch Box, Poughkeepsie, New York Casa Esperanza, Yonkers, New York The Sharing Community, Yonkers, New York P. O. T. S., Bronx, New York Fox House, New York The Handmaids of Mary, New York |
| Long-Term Goals | The Sisters have made energy conservation a priority for the future, including solar energy and straw-bale construction. |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information |
David Hambleton Sr. Mary Ann Garisto |