Managing Director Kristen Tool says the Heart & Soil Collective emerged as a creative response to the harsh reality of the pandemic outbreak in 2020.
“We really kind of fell into this nonprofit structure," she told WAMC. "We have a farm business, and then at the start of COVID, we had grown all of these vegetables, all the farmers markets were closed. We had no way to sell the food we grew, no way to make income. We couldn't hold workshops that were another source of our revenue, and so people in Lanesborough where we live, they started donating money to us to just deliver what we had grown to local seniors. And it was so well received in town that we decided the next year to incorporate it as a separate nonprofit aside from our farm business.”
As Heart & Soil made the rounds distributing produce from Berkshire farms, it was clear the effort was touching on multiple layers of need in the community.
“What we didn't expect was the need for social interaction as well, especially with seniors, who- We primarily work on reaching seniors and people who can't get out to a farmers market to buy fresh produce," Tool explained. "It also provides revenue for our farmers. The farmers market structure is great for getting visible in the community, for being social, for reaching people, but on the farmers ourselves, it's a lot of stress. You have to sit there for many hours, the weather is bad, if you don't sell it, your crops are a loss, and you've done all the labor and you're not getting paid for that- Or you have to find out how to pay somebody to sit at your farmers market for you. So financially, farmers markets are not really a successful model for farmers.”
The collective’s approach provides a simpler – and Tool would argue, more effective – approach.
“We go right to the farms, we pack the food, we deliver it to the home," she said. "So, we're decreasing the expenses on the farms, and we're also allowing them to get their food right to people's homes in their communities, connecting people to right where their food is being grown.”
In 2024, Heart & Soil Collective worked with 12 local farms to bring their produce to hundreds of Berkshire residents in 11 towns. One of those residents is Rex Johnson of Pittsfield.
“I’m retired, I'm 63 years old, and I retired a few years ago, and unfortunately had some bad medical problems," he told WAMC. "I ended up, unfortunately, being in a wheelchair, and it's hard to get around. So, that's where Kristen comes into play. With them delivering the fruit and vegetables during the summer, and the soup, it's been a real, real handy thing, because it's hard to get fresh produce when you can't get around so much.”
Unable to casually pop over to the supermarket due to his disability, Johnson says the regular deliveries from Heart & Soil are a godsend.
“It's a real wonderful thing that these guys do, that they get together with all the local farms, and it's just a real handy thing," he told WAMC. "Kristen certainly should be proud of herself for what she's doing.”
As a retiree on a fixed income, the free factor is a major selling point for Johnson.
“The price of food is sky high, so being on a fixed income, it's tough," he sighed. "You’ve got to really watch every penny, especially during the winter, when the price of heating is so expensive as well.”
Another group with rave reviews of Heart & Soil’s efforts is Pediatric Palliative Care by HospiceCare in The Berkshires, which offers end-of-life care to people under 22 in the county.
“Food is expensive, and it's great to have access to homegrown, local food that is good for you," said Assistant Program Director Kate Cimini." So, we got connected to the grant. We serve, I think, about 15 families with the CSA share. We offer the shares to families that could use them and that would benefit from them, and they serve families that have one kiddo, up to five, six kiddos. So, it's a really wonderful program. Our volunteers and our staff, every Wednesday, we deliver the CSA to their door so they don't have to worry about coming and picking it up. And then in the winter, spring, they do the soup deliveries, which are also well received.”
For families facing the unthinkable, Cimini says Heart & Soil’s service is a simple but invaluable gift.
“It provides some financial aid, it provides just the peace of mind of being able to- You have soup in your fridge, you have an instant meal, which is really quite fantastic,” she said.
On Saturday, the nonprofit will launch a crowdfunding campaign to both continue the work and hopefully expand on it.
“We were very fortunate the last two years to be nearly fully funded by the USDA’s food programming grant through a partnership with Berkshire Ag Ventures, and now- Our grant ended in the end of December, so, our funding hasn't ended because of all of the chaos going on in the government, but we still don't have that money to run our programming, and so we're doing a ‘Locally Grown to Local Homes’ crowdfunding campaign with a goal of raising $60,000 in order to allow us to pay our partner farms to get food to local homes and to pay our staff to do the work of picking the produce up, delivering it, cooking soups and packaging, all those supplies and materials,” said Tool.
Any extra money raised will allow the nonprofit to start bringing free produce to the next 40 people already on the waiting list.
“The long-term goal for our food programming – the community produce and soup programs – is to see them in every Berkshire County town, purchasing from farms in those communities and delivering to homes and in those communities, trying to keep it as local as possible," Tool told WAMC. "Because that's what the shift has to be- What can we eat that's being grown right here where we live.”
