Empower Farms
Empower Farms at a Glance
Farmer: Nicolas Miller
Where they’re located: Florida City
Website: Empower Farms @empowerfarms
What they grow: Assorted vegetables, assorted fruit, eggs, plants, turmeric, ginger
Where they sell: Their CSA
This 10-acre property near Robert Is Here in the Redland has it all: lush raised beds of produce, a fruit forest of papayas, bananas and other tropical fruits, stands of native pines, sea grape and Fakahatchee grass, chickens and a couple of goats. The harvest of all this bounty goes into a year-round CSA program, along with wholesale and retail sales during the growing season.
Growing food is not the primary goal of Empower Farms, says director Nicolas Miller. Their mission is to host people with special needs – Alzheimer’s, PTSD and other disabilities – equipping them to become teammates in all the tasks on a farm: planting seeds, filling pots with soil, pulling weeds, harvesting, painting signs, even making sugarcane juice. Over the last four years, Empower Farms has hosted 1,775 people with disabilities, many of whom happily return. “They can’t wait to come back,” Miller says. “We’re proud of ourselves when we send them home dirty and sweaty.”
In addition to field trips with groups, Empower Farms offers family days for one adult with special needs and one family member. Programs are free, but participants must provide transportation. Programs are designed for 18+ participants with intellectual, emotional and/or physical impairments.
