The Goodwill at Homefields Farm CSA and vocational program is the result of a dream of five families. In the early 1990's, these families came together with a shared vision to create a place of beauty for their sons and daughters to live and work on. This dream resulted in the creation of an organization called Homefields.
Goodwill Keystone Area was invited by Homefields to develop and operate a training program for people with disabilities here on the Homefields Farm in Millersville, Pennsylvania. The CSA and vocational program's first growing season was in 2000, when the former horse farm became a fertile area for growing vegetables.
Paul Martin pioneered the first growing season and got things up and running, supplying weekly vegetables to 28 shareholders. Trainees from Goodwill began learning how to plant seeds and nurture the seedlings, transplanting them into the fertile soil and eventually harvesting ripe vegetables and fruits, enjoying the fruits of their labor.
In 2001, Peter Emerson became the new farm manager and during the next four years, the farm program grow as shareholders went from 28 to 125, the farming of new ground to our west, and the trainee program becoming a Mon-Fri operation. In 2005, Scott Breneman became the Farm Manager after working with Peter since 2001.
Trainees continue to grow and take responsibility for the growth that occurs here and the CSA is growing in number as well,
with this season supplying 175 families with weekly fruits and vegetables and over 100 trainees having farmed in the program.
Interest in the program is widespread with Goodwills from New England and the South considering doing similar farm programs.
Goodwill at Homefields Farm
PO Box 38
Millersville, PA 17551
717.871.3110