The Westerly Sun (RI)
By Leslie Rovetti/ Sun Staff Writer
CHARLESTOWN — On West Beach Road, a local organic farmer, Maxson Hence of Westerly, has established a nonprofit foundation that teaches local teenagers about agriculture and fills their stomach with fresh produc
e.
Among the goals of the AYERSfoundation, newly founded by Hence and his wife, Ulrike, is to teach young people about the land and agriculture.
Hence has operated an organic farm, Hillandale Farm on Haversham Road in Westerly, for 18 years. Hillandale has used organic methods since before organic was cool.
“Back then, farm-fresh was foreign,” Hence said. “Organic was very fringe-y.”
But now that it’s de rigeur, Hence is expanding his farm with the AYERSfoundation’s farm-to-school program. The foundation is named after Hobart Bently Ayers, Hence’s great-grandfather. Ayers bought the land that is now Hillandale Farm in the early 1900s, and operated a dairy farm on the site until 1956.
This summer on the Charlestown parcel, once operated as East West Farm until the owner retired and sold the property, six high school students are helping Hence grow potatoes and onions. The students are earning above-minimum wages, getting an appreciation of where their food comes from, and receiving hands-on science lessons. And in the fall, the produce will be served in Westerly school cafeterias.
“We don’t need to be bringing in food from halfway around the world,” Hence said. “We’re hoping this can serve as a model.”
The plants had a slow start because of the heavy rains in early June, but Hence took that in stride. “That’s the nature of the beast in terms of farming,” he said.
In addition to the potatoes and onions, he’s hoping he can add some broccoli to the fields in August.
The produce will be sold in the fall to Chartwells School Dining Services, where it will be served throughout the Westerly district.
The lessons the students learn while farming may be agricultural in nature, but they are also solid scientific inquiry applicable to any discipline. Earlier in June, Hence asked the students to research methods for dealing with potato beetles and Japanese beetles.
“Some of them have already come up with some concoctions,” he said.
The next lesson he had scheduled was about cover crops and why they’re important to the soil. Students also apply their math skills when they calculate plot areas and determine the amount of seed to use.
The AYERSfoundation isn’t the Hences’ first foray into combining education and agriculture. This is the second year of his Farm and Food Healthy Living Camp, held in collaboration with the Tower Street School Community Center and funded by Hasbro and United Way. Last year’s camp had about 30 children ages 6 through 9, and this year the program has grown to 40.
The children create compost, learn how a vegetable’s color and nutrient content are related, try basic cooking techniques for fresh vegetables, and learn how to care for goats and chickens, among other activities. They will go to the beach to collect clams and compostable seaweed, and visit farms. In addition to the Hences’ Hillandale Farm, which specializes in organic tomatoes, the campers will visit a grass-fed beef farm on Route 91 and Ocean Breeze Farm, the last dairy farm in Westerly.
There will also be exercise, American folk music, and skits.
“The kids have a lot of fun with that,” Hence said.
For high school students, the Hences have sponsored weeklong intensive workshops on topics such as environmental stewardship and food distribution systems.
“This is service learning,” he said. “This is hands-on stuff.”
The Hences began opening up Hillandale Farm to education programs in 2008 or 2009, Hence recalled. “It was always in the back of our heads that this was what we wanted to do,” he said.
When Hence, a military veteran and former forester, and Ulrike, an educator, decided to rent the Charlestown property from its new owner and start the AYERSfoundation, they knew they’d need seed money. Hence launched an email campaign in May, and in five weeks raised $12,500, enough to get the farm off the ground and buy a tractor that the previous owner had offered. Most of that money came from donations of $100 or less, but the biggest benefactor was an upstate New York foundation called The Lewis Foundation Inc.
Founder Sandy Lewis said he’s never met the Hences, and hasn’t read the bylaws of the AYERSfoundation.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a friendship or anything of the kind,” he explained.
But one of Hence’s emails found its way to Lewis’ computer, and Lewis said the farm-to-school program was a great concept with national significance. He was impressed by the vision, by the student involvement, and by the commitment to organic growing methods, he said.
“He is highly critical of the food system, just like I am,” Hence said of Lewis.
Lewis offered a challenge grant; he would donate $5,000 if Hence could collect another $5,000 from donors who gave $100 or less.
“We don’t need Warren Buffet to set up those two acres,” Lewis said. “You only need a couple of acres and a community, and a guy like Max.”
