A Message from COO Jeff Swinehart

Click here to also watch a video message from LFT COO, Jeff Swinehart.

Dear friends,

We are living in unprecedented times. Each day greets us with more challenges than the day before and more questions than answers. However, if we look for them, I believe we can also find new opportunities – to connect with our community, prioritize what’s important, and rediscover life’s simple pleasures.

Last week, I asked our staff to conduct business remotely – as a way to do our part to flatten the curve while continuing to provide as much support as possible to our farmers and community. Our farmers, however, are both essential and life-sustaining business owners. Despite the chaos in the world around us, their daily work offers some certainties: cows need to be milked, eggs need to be collected, and fields need to be prepared for planting. Nature isn’t taking a break, and neither are our farmers.

Now more than ever, it’s important to support small businesses’ in our community – including our farmers. While many farmers sell their products to grain mills or milk co-ops, others sell goods directly to customers like you. Farmers across the county must continue their work to ensure a safe and healthy food supply – the cornerstone of civilized society. We want to do our part to support them, and you, in this uncertain time.

On our website and in our social media feeds, we shared a list of local farmer’s markets and roadside stands that remain open as life-sustaining businesses. We will update that information as this scenario evolves. Of course, we want to remind you to practice social distancing and take other health measures during your interaction at any farmer’s market or roadside stand.

After more than 20-years of working with Lancaster County farmers, I don’t think they’ll mind if I extend sincere gratitude on their behalf, and my own, for your unwavering support of agriculture in our community. Your investment in local foods and protecting the land that grows them gives our farmers hope. They continue their work during this frenzied time, so your family will have access to a safe and healthy food supply. We remain focused on our work to protect threatened farmland across the region, in order to ensure we all have food to eat when we need it most.

If you have any questions for me or any other staff member at Lancaster Farmland Trust, please contact us by direct email (found here) or through our general inbox, info@lancasterfarmlandtrust.org.

I wish you and your family continued health and happiness.