Caria Hawkins: Planting Seeds for a Healthy Community

For those considering a career in the food and drink industry, farming may not be on the top of the list, given the long hours, access to affordable land and other factors. Yet agriculture is critical to a sustainable food system. Often farmers come to the profession because they want a source of nutritious food, and some, like Caria Hawkins, are driven by a desire to provide healthy food to their community.

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Name: Caria Hawkins
Job Title: Farmer-Owner
Company: Abundant Harvests Farm LLC.

Caria's Career Path:
I was a Special Education Teacher for a few years. It was very challenging but truly a rewarding job in many ways. My greatest influence driving me to farm was a personal desire to help bring about change within my family and surrounding communities. The growing epidemic of a lack of nutritious food in areas designated as food deserts and rampant health disparities caused me great concern.

Our family-owned and operated sustainable farm focuses on producing food without harmful herbicides or pesticides and educating the community on the importance of consuming healthy food. We purchased the farm over 20 years ago to raise our children on, and they are all adults now. We have one grandson who loves the farm. The farm is operated by myself and my husband with the help of volunteers. Depending on the season, we are planning and diagramming seasons, planting using companion planting techniques, conditioning the soil through sustainable methods, planting seeds, maintaining the plants by pruning, weeding, checking for insects, organically fertilizing and monitoring water irrigation to each plant.

Since starting to farm my role has allowed me the opportunity to incorporate more of my teaching background. It has been a very gratifying feeling to be able to integrate my passion along with my purpose. My future plans include producing more varieties of nutrient-rich food using various sustainable methods in combination with companion planting.