We recently connected with Mary Galvanek, Emily Ruppert N/A and have shared our conversation below.
Mary Galvanek, Emily Ruppert, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Through our nature-based educational children’s program, our summer camp, and our farmer’s market, our mission is to foster ec0-consious mindsets, connect people with healthy food options and to support our farmers. Northern Michigan was a wonderful place to grow up. In our younger years, both of our families owned and operated farms, and we grew up eating from those farms. Through our adult years, we came to realize that there was a very limited amount of readily accessible food of that quality. Our vision was to create an oasis in the middle of the food desert that was failing to serve our families and community.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We gathered together to create local access to fresh, consciously and compassionately raised food for nearby community members, as well as an educational space for our local children. During the pandemic, we built our educational haven to provide our children with the advantages we deemed most valuable, and to explore the forest school style, spanning all four seasons. As the pandemic waned and the world came together again, we set our sights on the local farmers’ market. It was the perfect place to improve access to local food. Taking our market from six vendors to sixty was a dream that we never could have expected but nevertheless successfully brought to fruition. The local response was profound. Everyone is welcome- artisans, musicians, artists, and of course farmers. We’ve given everyone a place to thrive and connect. Moving forward, we want to continue to provide local farms with a platform, local people with access to fresh and healthy foods, to nurture awareness of sustainability, and to encourage our community to invest in themselves and those around them by making local food and business a priority.
Over the two years of operation for both the school and market, the growth and impact we have seen continues to amaze us. From our two acres of garden and four acres of forest, there have been dozens of families that have enjoyed and benefited from the farm through our programs that are provided year-round. We are connecting not only children but people of all ages to food that they eat, and the farmers who grow it. We have seen several farmers start up and grow. And there is only more growth on the horizon.
We are extremely proud of the space that we have created in both the farm and the market, and this wonderful flourishing community that has come from it. Watching students that were not thriving in traditional schooling immediately rise to meet their potential in our nature-based environment highlights our status as pioneers in this field for our community, and we are honored to bring these methods to the families around us.
Any advice for managing a team?
In every group of people the most important elements are kindness and compassion, followed closely by stellar work ethic and a willingness to complete any task necessary. Always supporting the people you work with, not just the business that you run, is very important. “Family first” is a significant motto to live by, but in addition to this, considering your vital team as family is a great way to ensure that you and your staff are fulfilled and happy.
How’d you meet your business partner?
We met on a business trip for entrepreneurs and we instantly bonded over our common passion for farming. It didn’t take long or many conversations for the beginnings of our future successes to be born. Mary’s youngest son, Charlie, and his love of horses brought us to Emily’s family farm to meet her beautiful horse, Slick, and the connection only strengthened from there. As Emily was already more than halfway through her Environmental Studies and Sustainable Policy academic pursuits and with her extensive background in farming and 4H programs, and Mary was coming off of two decades of being an educator, farmer, and business manager, we quickly recognized the opportunity to team up and make a difference in the world around us, in a way that we would be able to see the results manifest throughout our community. We couldn’t be happier to invite Alan Hubbell and Nic Grogan to join us as our venture grows. While Miss Nic helps finetune the educational aspects of the program, Big Al uses his building and farming knowledge to keep everything running smoothly. We are incredibly proud of the team that we have brought together and the impact we have together on our community.
Contact Info:
- Website: forestandfarm.us,cadillacfarmersmarket.org
- Instagram: @ForestandFarmNoMi @CadillacFarmersMarket
- Facebook: Forest and Farm; Cadillac Farmers Market
- Other: TikTok: @ForestAndFarmNoMi @CadillacFarmersMarket
Image Credits
Anthony Slaughterhawk