Rising Stars: Meet Beth De Vries of Midland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth De Vries.

Hi Beth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2018 I decided to focus on my family’s health and the work of caring for our 4 children. I was driven by a desire to return to my roots and try to grow the vegetables we needed for our family. We started a 500-square-foot raised bed garden in our yard. Along with a desire to grow vegetables for my own family, my desire for everyone to have fresh local vegetables has grown. I stopped formally working as a Nurse Practitioner. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, I worked in Women’s Health in Midland for 6 years doing wellness exams. Many struggled with my recommendations for increasing vegetable intake due to a lack of knowledge and resources. God has opened my eyes with compassion to see some of the needs in our community.

I learned that hunger is not a distant theoretical problem, but food insecurity is a problem that affects 1 out of 3 families in Midland County. One out of three families has to make difficult decisions between paying bills and purchasing food for their families. Many people need help affording fresh produce on their budgets. Sadly, the best food for our bodies is often considered a luxury that not all can afford. I grew up on a dairy farm in McBain, MI. Like many in our community, we experienced some financial but never food insecurity. I grew up with my parents and extended family, always tending a large garden where we grew almost all the products we needed for the year. We preserved the harvest for the winter by canning and freezing vegetables and fruits. Although many in our community had few financial resources, most knew how to grow and preserve food for their family. Growing and preserving food is knowledge and art lost in our culture today.

After setting up our home garden, I started working with Midland Fresh and created a community garden at Midland Christian School. Then an opportunity arose for us to rent land from friends who were moving. Their home tragically burned, and they were moving out of the area. We rented the 30 acres for recreational purposes, but a large cleared area caught our attention as an opportunity to serve hugely. We wanted to create beauty out of the ashes of the tragic situation, so we called it Phoenix Farm.

Phoenix Community Farm has been growing healthy food for those in need in Midland County since its founding in 2018 and establishment as a nonprofit organization in 2019. In 2019 they donated 1,420 pounds of produce and nearly 1,400 eggs! In 2020, the farm donated over 800 pounds of produce and 2,394 eggs to people in need in Midland County. In October 2020, the farm moved to a larger location to collaborate with Windover High School, allowing greater opportunities to work with students from the school, people in the neighborhood, volunteers from around Midland, and the local Head Start Preschool. As a result of this new location, the farm donated 10,162 pounds of produce to the community in 2021. No small feat when you consider that establishing the garden space, planting, weeding, and harvesting is done by volunteers, Windover students, and participants from the Arnold Center, under the direction of founder Beth De Vries, a volunteer herself!

In 2022, due to the vastness of the project and the vision of a sustainable, vibrant community growing & eating healthy food together, Phoenix Community Farm started the transition to employing some paid staff to assist volunteers with the tons of produce. They were able to grow, harvest, and donate 8,632 pounds of produce in 2022. The produce has been donated through Hidden Harvest, Midland Fresh Mobile Farm Stand (run by the Arnold Center), and a Pay what you Can produce stand located by the farm. Phoenix Community Farm also provided rows for community members to grow their food. Community members adopted seventeen rows in 2021 and 2022.

What started as a crazy big plan born from listening to God and saying yes to big things without knowing how it would all come together has become a wonderful community-supported nonprofit organization. The mission of Phoenix Community Farm is to assist residents in meeting the basic need for fresh, healthy produce. The farm grows and shares produce while educating and empowering its community to grow healthy together. We are a nonprofit farm that serves the Midland community with fresh produce and education about growing, harvesting, preparing, eating, and preserving produce. Their vision is a sustainable, vibrant community growing and eating healthy food together. Since founding just 5 years ago, Phoenix Community Farm has built a reputation of community service, a willingness to partner effectively, and a commitment to those most in need.

You wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been smooth?
Growing food and farming is always a struggle as it depends on the weather. There have always been ups and downs in the products we have been able to grow. There have also been times with plenty of volunteers and times with very few volunteers. Changing locations in 2020 took a lot of work. Moving all our equipment and restarting in a new location was very difficult. However, the new collaboration with Windover High School and the new location within Midland City limits in a wonderful neighborhood has been a huge blessing. The sun and soil in the new location are better than in our original location. Being right inside Midland has allowed us to increase our volunteers, and distribution of the product is easier in Midland.

Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
I am a Family Nurse Practitioner. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Community Health Nursing. Even when I stopped working formally as a Nurse Practitioner, my passion for Community Health did not go away. Now I work on Community Health in a new way by donating healthy food and education to the community. And I get to work with my children on the Farm and teach them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.phoenixcommunityfarm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phoenixcommunityfarm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixCommunityFarm