Farming with Friends

02/20/2026

We couldn’t wait to share a sneak peek of our 2025 Impact Report with you, friends! 🌱

Last year was about getting the farm and our inclusive programming up and running to support young adults with disabilities through the health, structure, and sense of purpose that meaningful farm work can provide.

In 2026, we’re turning our attention to building the capacity we need to keep this work growing so more individuals with disabilities can experience the dignity of work, the joy of teamwork, and the deep sense of belonging that comes from being part of something real.

Thank you for walking alongside us as this community grows! 💚🤟

02/19/2026

**Application deadline Sunday!**

🌱 We’re Hiring a Farm Hand! 🌱

At Farming with Friends, we believe meaningful work builds confidence, connection, and purpose. This season, we’re welcoming a new Farm Hand to join our inclusive farm community and grow alongside us.

This hands-on role offers supported training in planting, harvesting, and caring for crops—while building workplace skills, routines, and friendships in a welcoming environment.

✨ No experience needed
✨ Training and support provided
✨ Designed for individuals building vocational skills
✨ People with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply
📍 Farming with Friends Farm Site (2317 Ira Road)
⏰ Part-time | Seasonal (April–November)
💵 $11/hour
🌻 Growing food. Growing confidence. Growing together.

📧 Apply by Feb 22, 2026

🔗 To learn more, visit our website: farmingwithfriends.org/jobs/

02/19/2026

Hello again friends! 💚❄️🌱

While we’re looking ahead to spring, we also want to take a moment to celebrate the amazing work that’s already happening here at Farming with Friends!

Even in these cold winter days, our volunteers have been hard at work:
🌿 Prepping materials and building raised beds
🌿 Organizing and clearing greenhouse spaces
🌿 Supporting administrative projects behind the scenes
🌿 Helping us plan for an inclusive and impactful 2026 growing season

This momentum doesn’t just happen, it’s powered by people who believe in creating community-centered opportunities where all abilities can grow together. 🌻

If you’ve been thinking about joining us, now is the perfect time. Whether you prefer hands-on farm work or helping from your laptop, there’s a place for you here.

Visit www.farmingwithfriends.org to learn more, or comment/message us to get involved. We can’t wait to grow with you! 💚

— The Farming with Friends Team

02/17/2026

🌿☀️ What a beautiful day to grow together! ☀️🌿

We were so excited to welcome some new friends from Teammates Center L.L.C to the farm! With sunshine overhead and teamwork in full swing, we laid the final giant tarp in the garden and started mulching the pathways between our raised beds in the hoop house. Huge thanks to this amazing crew, and to several wonderful Old Trail School parent volunteers, for jumping right in!

Days like this are about so much more than farm tasks. 💚

Working side-by-side, people with disabilities and typically-abled volunteers build strength, stamina, coordination, and confidence through meaningful, hands-on work. Farming supports physical health through movement and fresh air, boosts mental wellness by reducing stress and increasing focus, and creates powerful opportunities for teamwork and belonging.

On our farm, everyone contributes. Everyone learns. Everyone grows.

This is what inclusion looks like: community-centered, purpose-driven, and rooted in dignity. 🌱

02/11/2026

Hi friends! ❄️🌱

We hope you’re staying cozy and finding small joys in these winter days. Even though it’s cold outside, spring is closer than we think, and here at Farming with Friends, we’re already gearing up for an incredible 2026 growing season!

If you’d like to be part of the momentum, here are a few ways to jump in:

🌿 Farm Workday – Tuesday 2/17 | 11am–2pm
We’ll be assembling raised beds and clearing out the hoop house and greenhouses to get everything ready for spring planting. With a solid crew, we can knock this out quickly (and have some fun while we’re at it). Fresh air, meaningful work, and great company included!
👉 Comment below or message us if you’d like to join.

💻 Administrative Volunteers Needed
As we grow, so does the behind-the-scenes work. A few hours a week helping with research, data entry, file organization, or basic correspondence would make a huge difference. If you enjoy organizing, writing, or supporting mission-driven work from your laptop, we would love your help.

Every hour you give helps create inclusive, community-centered opportunities on the farm - empowering all abilities to grow together. 🌻

Let us know how you’d like to get involved. We can’t wait to see you soon! 💚
— Ginnette

02/03/2026

🌱 We’re Hiring a Farm Hand! 🌱

At Farming with Friends, we believe meaningful work builds confidence, connection, and purpose. This season, we’re welcoming a new Farm Hand to join our inclusive farm community and grow alongside us.

This hands-on role offers supported training in planting, harvesting, and caring for crops—while building workplace skills, routines, and friendships in a welcoming environment.

✨ No experience needed
✨ Training and support provided
✨ Designed for individuals building vocational skills
✨ People with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply

📍 Farming with Friends Farm Site (2317 Ira Road)
⏰ Part-time | Seasonal (April–November)
💵 $11/hour

🌻 Growing food. Growing confidence. Growing together.

📧 Apply by Feb 22, 2026

🔗 To learn more, visit our website: farmingwithfriends.org/jobs/

01/31/2026

We're all set up and ready to mingle! 😁

It's finally here! Fair Day! We can't wait to see you there! Bears Family Resource Group

01/30/2026

Hi, friends! Come out and join us tomorrow at the Bears Family Resource Group Resource Fair to learn about disability-friendly organizations and resources in our community! 10-1 at North Royalton Elementary School. Hope to see you there! 🤟

Come one, come All! Very excited about this resource fair our Bears Family Resource Group is having on January 31. Please plan on attending and please reach out if you have any questions!

01/26/2026

Trench Composting: Turning Waste into Growth at Old Trail School

Trench composting is a simple, sustainable method of returning food waste directly back to the earth. Instead of composting above ground, food scraps are buried in shallow trenches where they naturally break down, enriching the soil with nutrients over time. The result is healthier soil that supports strong, organic plant growth, closing the loop between what we consume and what we grow.

At Old Trail School, trench composting is more than an environmental practice, it’s part of a meaningful partnership with Farming with Friends. Food waste from Old Trail students is collected and used in Farming with Friends’ trench compost system. That compost then becomes the nutrient-rich soil used to grow organic produce right on campus.

Farming with Friends’ mission centers on creating opportunities for people with disabilities to grow, work, and connect through farming. While people with disabilities may require support, they also bring deep and lasting contributions including resilience, patience, determination, and hope. When individuals with disabilities work alongside their typically-abled peers, stigma is broken down and empathy grows.

Hosted on Old Trail School’s beautiful 62-acre campus in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Farming with Friends has access to a 10,000-square-foot garden and four high tunnels. Old Trail’s commitment to experiential learning taking education out from behind desks and into wide-open spaces makes it the perfect environment for this collaboration to thrive.

Together, trench composting, education, and inclusive farming come full circle: food waste becomes soil, soil becomes food, and the process builds connection, purpose, and community. Farming with Friends is more than a farm. It is a place of growth, mutual learning, and compassion, an organization rooted, at its heart, in love.
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How You Can Support Farming with Friends
Programs like trench composting, accessible raised beds, and inclusive farming experiences are only possible because of community support. As a nonprofit organization, Farming with Friends relies on volunteers and donations to continue providing meaningful opportunities for people with disabilities to grow, work, and connect through farming.

Your support helps fund:
• Accessible infrastructure, including raised garden beds and tools
• Program staffing and participant support
• Seeds, soil, and sustainable growing supplies
• Educational and community-building initiatives

Donations of any size make a difference whether supporting daily operations or helping expand inclusive growing spaces for the future.

To learn more, volunteer, or make a contribution, visit the below link and become part of a community rooted in connection, compassion, and growth.
https://farmingwithfriends.org/our-mission/













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01/14/2026

Thank you so much to Kalyani Consulting https://kalyani-consulting.com/ and the Elevate’ED Leadership program for helping us build our program with purpose, clarity, and sustainability guiding our decisions. It has been so very helpful! ❤️🤟