About | Poudre Valley Community Farms

About

Vision: Community Supported Farmland
Mission: We create connections to support local
food producers in our community through land, water, infrastructure access and business development
support.

 

Who We Are

Poudre Valley Community Farms is an organization focused on helping food producers find land so they can  provide us with healthy, locally grown food. We all know that in the Front Range land is prohibitively expensive for most food producers. That’s where we come in. Whether it’s owning land or looking for opportunities for producers to lease publicly or privately owned land, Poudre Valley Community Farms has the insight and expertise to grow the local food economy.

In 2023, PVCF voted to move from a coop model to a non-profit in order to maximize opportunities for funding. We believe that this newly created non-profit will have even more success at providing land access opportunities. We hope you will help us grow!

The History

PVCF was incorporated in 2015 as a for-profit cooperative model led by a grassroots group of amazing founders and members. It was a novel and untested business structure to pool community resources to purchase farms and then lease the land to food producers. There was a lot of enthusiasm and support for the model, but it was very much an experiment to determine if the cooperative model was the best way to achieve the goals of providing affordable, long-term land and water access for local farmers.

In 2019, PVCF expanded our scope of vision to not only own land, but to work with the City of Fort Collins to become the leasing agent for land in natural areas that could be used by food producers. The city saw value in managing agriculture in these natural areas as a way to keep the land healthy while at the same time, preserving the agricultural heritage of Northern Colorado.

In 2023, the Board of Directors of PVCF Cooperative determined that the coop model of owning and leasing farmland had become untenable with the continuously rising cost of land. Members of the coop agreed and voted to transition to a 501c3 non-profit in order to expand our funding sources and allow us to pursue alternate ways to provide land and water access.

Our Success is Your Success

PVCF currently owns one farm (leased to Jodar Farms.) And, through the City of Fort Collins, we now lease land to seven other producers! These farmers count on us  – and we count on you! If you value locally grown food, please consider a donation.