NEWFANE-SUSU commUNITY Farm has purchased the 37-acre farm along the West River here where the organization has been for about two years.
The land buy was made possible through a collaboration with the Vermont Land Trust, which paid for half the acquisition. SUSU raised the other half through contributions and donations.
"This land represents more than just a new home; it is a sacred space where our Afro-Indigenous vision of healing and connection will flourish," writes Collaborative Director Amber Skye Arnold in a press release.
"We invite everyone to join us on this journey as we build our capacity to open the farm as a public space for connection and liberation, bringing Afro-Indigenous dreams to life," Arnold says.
This month, SUSU, the first Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) led farm in Windham County, also launched the #giveBlack fundraising campaign aiming to raise $200,000 by Oct. 6.
The campaign launched on Black August and will end on the birthday of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
The organization will use the money to help sustain farm operations and to invest in and hire operations staff members, which are, said Arnold, "much needed for the growth of the organization."
Money raised will also go to build infrastructure, including covered spaces on the land that will be used as teaching areas.
In addition, Arnold said, the funds will help sustain SUSU's Box of Resilience program, the organization's community-supported agriculture (CSA) membership program.
Black August, which started Aug. 1, is an annual commemoration and prison-based holiday to remember Black political prisoners and Black freedom struggles in the United States and beyond, and to highlight Black resistance against racial, colonial, and imperialist oppression. It takes place during the entire month of August.
SUSU has other connections to October as well. The group's four-year anniversary is Oct. 20, and October is also Hoodoo Heritage Month.
"That's an especially important month for Black Hoodooists and spiritualists," Arnold said by phone. "All Black people are Hoodooists, because it's all the practices that have enabled us to survive and to dream into life liberation. It's really Black culture."
Box of Resilience is for people in Windham County who are of the global majority, a term that describes people of Indigenous, African, Asian, or Latin American descent who together make up approximately 85% of the world population.
Currently, the program serves 60 member families.
For the past two years, SUSU has received an about $40,000 Local Food Assistance Program grant that covered most of the cost of the program but that grant is ending.
The new funding will also help SUSU to continue its Trauma Conscious School of Liberation programs.
"Through that we have a program called 'Unbodying Supremacy, Leaving Connection.' And we've been running a program called 'The Grief Garden' this year and working on a few others we hope to launch next year," Arnold said.
Overall, SUSU hopes to raise $800,000 toward its $1 million annual operating cost, but this campaign is to raise the $200,000.
The remainder, said Arnold, will be raised through grants.
"And, hopefully, we'll exceed our goals and have sponsorships and people who help us meet that bigger vision and goal," she said.
How the #giveBlack campaign works
The best way to become involved is by becoming a team leader. That means you'll recruit a team of 10 friends who will each raise $100 for a collective team total of $1,000.
Team leaders can choose higher fundraising goals if they wish. Successful team leaders will receive a special #giveBlack T-shirt.
Local businesses and community organizers can host art or dance shows, sell products with proceeds going to SUSU, organize bake sales, and find other creative ways to raise money.
Throughout the campaign, SUSU will host live Instagram activities, such as a money altar-making, rituals, giveaways with partner organizations, and a Florida water raffle highlighting the historical significance of Black Caribbean emancipation form the British Empire, also in August, and honoring Black August and political freedom fighters and Black revolutionaries liberating each other.
The campaign will culminate with an Oct. 26 gratitude event to celebrate participants' collective achievement and to thank supporters.
SUSU commUNITY Farm is an Afro-Indigenous farm rooted in the Black womanist beliefs of collective ancestors.
"We are committed to existing as a homemade field of life for people of the global majority to gather, heal, and thrive in safety, dignity, and belonging," reads its mission. "We do this by practicing food and land sovereignty, offering land-based connections, and embodying ancestral healing."
SUSU commUNITY Farm is "dedicated to fostering resilience, climate sustainability, and culturally affirming healing within communities of color disproportionately impacted by systemic oppression."
It provides its programming "by integrating ancestral knowledge with contemporary practices."
"Our work supports individual and community health while building a foundation for collective liberation and long-term sustainability."
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.