Help Farmer Chris Recover from Foot Surgery

The team of French Farms is fundraising to help farmer Chris recover from recent foot surgery, and to keep the farm going during our busiest season of the year without our leader! This week Chris had an accident while loading a tractor onto a trailer and the trailer fell onto his toe, breaking it on impact. In order for the toe to heal correctly he had to have an operation to add some metal bits to the break, which means an expensive hospital stay and no walking (or farming) for the next 6-8 weeks.

Those of you who know a bit about growing food in South Florida know that October & November are our absolute busiest months of the year. The farm was planning on starting the market this weekend, and the CSA program in a few weeks. The greenhouse is full of transplants that need to go in the ground, and harvesting has just started in earnest. We very much need our leader, who typically works 50+ hours a week this time of year and does many tasks that others cant, like operating specialty machinery, training new team members, and building new infrastructure.

We've done some farm math and in order for this medical setback to not financially effect the farm in a very negative way, we are trying to raise $12,000 dollars. This money will help us hire extra crew, offset the losses we will incur due to the inability to operate at full speed, and take care of some of Chris' personal expenses like rent, medical bills, and a bunch of Uber rides to the farm. Fall is so crazy at the farm we are hoping that throwing some money at this situation will help keep us on track and keep the farm going, although we really have no idea how its all going to work out. For better or worse, small diversified farms like ours are very dependent on the guidance and labor from their owner operators, so Chris will be very challenging to replace!

There are other ways to support too; come shop at the market (when we can return), spread the word, or come lend a hand at a future volunteer day (we will be planning a few in the coming weeks to get some helping hands in the fields). Small farms survive and thrive with the support of their community. Thanks in advance for your contribution!