Little Platte Catholic Worker Farm

UPDATE: We are here at the Little Platte Catholic Worker Farm in Platteville, Wisconsin! Thank you to all of our generous donors and to everyone who has been praying and encouraging us. We couldn't have done this without you!

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While we have secured all the funding we needed for purchasing the farm, we do have a few loans that we will be paying back. If you feel moved to give financially, please know that your gift will go directly to paying off these loans so that we can apply more of our time and energy to the vision of this community. Thank you!

UPDATE: We have received over $164,000 in pledges outside of GoFundMe. Thank you, friends!

For the past two years, our families, the Morris-Latchaws - Lyric, Matt, Damian (2), & Meadow (8 months) and the Winters - Allyson, Lincoln, Misha (2), & Otter (10 months), have been meeting regularly to discern what it would look like to form an intentional, faith-based community. What began as a wistful “what if?” has since been animated by the Spirit into an immediate reality! We have prayed together, supported one another, and challenged one another, and we have all been transformed. About a year ago, we found a home in Wisconsin that we all agree is a perfect(!) match for our project. This is truly a “rubber meets the road” moment for us… and we are excited to share that we have decided to take a leap of faith and start the Little Platte Catholic Worker Farm, and we are asking for your financial help! Our vision is to start a community farm in the Catholic Worker* movement. Along with Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin, we dedicate ourselves to “creating a new society in the shell of the old” through the practice of our values: Spirituality, Community, Hospitality, Right Relationship with the Land, Simplicity & Homemaking, Non-Violence, Education, Decolonization & Anti-Racism, and Creativity**.

THE COMMUNITY: Our lives in many ways already reflect our commitment to these ideals: Lyric & Matt spent six years growing food for and managing Moriah Pie, a pay-as-you-can community-based restaurant in Norwood, Ohio, where they still reside. In addition to their current Episcopal Church leadership roles, Matt recently completed training in spiritual direction, and Lyric continues to grow her practice as an artist. Allyson has a decade of experience in the Catholic Worker movement practicing hospitality, managing farm projects, and engaging in nonviolent activism, and Lincoln has spent most of the past nine years working for and managing both commercial and non-profit organic produce farms. Allyson and Lincoln currently manage a small-scale vegetable farm in New Vienna, Iowa. Both of our families practice regular prayer and worship, grow most of the food we eat, and eschew many contemporary technologies in favor of simplicity and manual labor.

THE VISION: Specifically, we intend to practice holistic agriculture guided by the principles of permaculture design, expanding the Winters’ farm and shifting it to a sliding-scale payment model. We will implement place-based ecological restoration and “rewilding” of oak savanna and prairie ecosystems. Drawing from our collective experience in immersive education and church leadership, we will offer programming focused on the intersections of agriculture, ecology, and theology. We will offer spiritual retreats for activists and seekers, guided by our daily rhythms of prayer and community life. As the circle broadens, we envision eliminating our dependency on fossil fuels, leading land-based craft workshops, hosting residencies for artists and musicians, faith gatherings, and natural building projects.

THE FARM: The 37-acre property we intend to purchase is located just south of the college town of Platteville, Wisconsin (about three hours from where Matt, Lyric, & Lincoln grew up in southern Iowa), nestled in the heart of the Driftless Region of the Midwest. The farm is located on the ancestral land of the Ho-Chunk, Ioway, Meskwaki, Missouria, Otoe, Potawatomi, and Sauk Nations. The farm was initially referred to us on a whim by our dear friends at St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm, which is located only eight miles away.

The farm features a house and outbuilding that can initially accommodate both of our growing families while we discern how to build and create room for hospitality and guests, and there is adequate tillable acreage for both growing food and pasturing animals. The farm's proximity to both Platteville and St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm means that we can make use of biking and walking as practical means of transportation. This is all without mentioning the oak trees towering amidst the timber canopy, the spring feeding the Little Platte River in the bottomland and the beautiful fields of prairie flowers.

As white descendants of settlers on this land, we are aware of the profound responsibility that comes with land access in a country with roots in land theft and genocide. We have elected to pay an annual tithe to the Honor Native Land Fund supporting land return to Indigenous peoples, and we have chosen to seek out and center the needs of local BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) communities in our work on the farm. You can read more about our commitments to Decolonization and Anti-Racism in our community covenant.

We are asking for financial help in making this vision a reality! The owner of the property is interested in selling to us, and needs to do so by June 2024. After combining our resources, we still need to raise $400,000 to purchase this property outright. We are asking any interested persons or organizations to prayerfully consider participating in our work through: prayer, a financial gift, and the spread of this message!

Will you support us in this work? We welcome all offerings to our project, including words of encouragement, prayer, service, and donated items! That being said, our most immediate need is financial support in reaching our $400,000 goal. We welcome gifts or loans of any amount, because we believe we will reach our goal only through collective effort. It is important to note we do not have 501(c)(3) status so gifts are not tax-deductible.

We would love to know of your intent to support Little Platte Catholic Worker Farm by June 6th, 2024! Please contact us to discuss any questions or ideas you may have, to hear from references, or to learn more about our project!

We want to offer our deepest gratitude to you, the “community holding our community”. Your prayers and support have sustained us throughout this process, and we know we would not have this opportunity without an amazing network of people. Thank you!

Allyson, Lincoln, Lyric, and Matt

Little Platte Catholic Worker Farm

*read more about the Catholic Worker here.

**you can find a full copy of our covenant here.