Culpeper chosen for next 'volunteer farm'

By: Nate Delesline | The Daily Progress
Published: February 20, 2009

Culpeper County will be home to the next “volunteer farm,” becoming the latest site in Virginia to produce locally raised food for area charities.

Bob Blair, chairman of the World Foundation for Children, which oversees the volunteer farm program, announced Thursday that the WFC has leased nearly 100 acres in northwestern Culpeper County for $1 per year for 10 years.

The farm, located on Woodland Church Road off U.S. 522, represents the WFC’s third such site in the state. The land’s donor wishes to remain anonymous.

The Volunteer Farm of Culpeper will provide free vegetables and meat to the Charlottesville branch of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. That food will be distributed to pantries and soup kitchens in the city of Charlottesville as well as the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock.

“It is very important that we start small and grow gradually so that we keep in pace with the number of volunteers and donations from the community we serve,” Blair said. “Because our organization is not rich, we must depend on financial aid from the community we serve.”

A volunteer livestock farm operates on 65 acres in the Zepp Valley on the West Virginia line.

Another volunteer farm in Woodstock, established six years ago, provided 35 tons of food in 2008 with the help of 3,100 volunteers from 42 states and 25 countries.

“Since the Culpeper farm will be bigger and better, we eventually anticipate more volunteers from more distant locations,” Blair said. “And we expect to grow much more food, because the need is so great with our sour economy.”

Blair said the organization plans to begin by growing about 10 acres of potatoes in the first year.