NC farm and nonprofit partner to feed kids, growing fresh produce at a park

Jim Sander deftly poked his metal stake into the ground, pushing aside compost and clay to nestle in a leafy lettuce seedling in the hope that soon it will feed a hungry Orange County child.

In just two hours Friday, Sander, the owner of Wildflower Lane Farm in Efland, and a handful of volunteers planted 1,000 seedlings at an expansion of the farm’s operation on Old N.C. 86. to support TABLE Ministries.

The lettuces, kale, chard and collard greens they had put in Thursday appeared to be going strong after overnight rain. Another 1,000 plants, plus marigolds and pansies, woud be added over the weekend.

“It’s fun,” Sander said. “I don’t ever look at it as work, so I just go from one thing to another.”

It’s an intensive growing operation but completely organic, relying on good soil, good drainage, and a liberal dose of compost and mulch, Sander said. Soil testing showed the first field had about 8% organic matter, making it highly desirable for agriculture.

“The better the soil, the better the plants, and very minor bug issues,” Sander said.

He started Wildflower Lane Farm on Bradshaw Quarry Road about 15 years ago and formed a partnership in 2017 to provide fresh produce to the Carrboro-based hunger-relief group TABLE Ministries.

TABLE buys the seedlings, fencing and supplies, said Ashton Tippins, the executive director. They also send a part-time staff member to the farm at least once a week.

“Our partnership with Wildflower Lane Farm has been so meaningful to us for a lot of reasons,” Tippins said, including the ability to get locally grown organic produce at a fraction of the retail cost. It also provides local farms with a stable source of income, she said.

For-profit farm grows for charity

Sander started Wildflower Lane Farm in 2010, setting aside a portion of the 24-acre farm for a certified organic operation. He sold produce to stores, restaurants and community-supported agriculture (CSA) customers.

In 2017, he approached TABLE about providing materials and volunteers, in return for Sander working 20 hours a week to grow food on three-quarters of an acre at his farm. By 2021, TABLE was getting $80,000 in produce from a $15,000 investment in materials and a part-time worker.

An acre of vegetables can sell for roughly $200,000, Sander said, and since the farm uses volunteer labor, the vegetables will cost about 80% less than they would at a store. He hopes it will become a model for others around the state.

“There’s no middleman, there’s no shipping, there’s no transportation or marketing or advertising. Nobody’s making a profit,” he said.

And no one is going to reject imperfect vegetables, he added.

Last year, Sander and Blair Pollock, a former county solid waste planner, asked Orange County about expanding the farm operation to the 193-acre Twin Creeks Park site on Old N.C. 86. The land has largely remained undeveloped since the county purchased it in 2001.

In June, county officials signed off on a three-year deal that sets aside 3.5 acres across the road from the Won Buddhist Temple.

Volunteers prepare fields for season

A handful of volunteers got to work quickly, preparing the farm for its first growing season.

Ray Cheek, whose family used to run a local dairy business, came out to plow the land, Pollock said. Another volunteer used a large tiller to make the rows, amended with compost from a Chatham County company that uses food scraps from Orange County’s composting program.

More people pledged to come back and help after wandering over last week when they fenced the first half-acre plot. An $8,000 Orange Water and Sewer Authority water line was installed for irrigation.

“We wanted to do something that would produce a significant quantity of food,” Sander said.

A few UNC and East Chapel Hill High School students have also come out to help, but the group will need more people as the garden grows and the crops come in, Sanders said. Volunteers can sign up at volunteer.tablenc.org.

UNC sophomore Camille Moore worked quietly as she listened to the older men talk.

She learned about the volunteer opportunity in her UNC social and economic justice class, which requires 30 hours of service with a local organization, Moore said. Friday was her first day at the farm, and she also plans to help TABLE deliver the food.

“I didn’t even realize that we just planted a thousand” vegetable plants in the first two hours, Moore said. “The amount of people that can feed, it’s a lot of lettuce. It’s incredible, and it’s not even difficult work that can do so much.”

More fresh produce for children

Next year, the farm could expand to a full acre, leaving one acre for a you-pick flower garden that will generate more money for the farm. They could also add a solar system in the future to power a gathering space in a shady grove of trees near the field.

TABLE buys a third of its food from five local farmers and Farmer Foodshare, a nonprofit food hub connecting Triangle farmers with markets and restaurants, Tippins said. The food is feeding 1,125 Orange County kids right now, with another 230 on a waiting list, she said.

In 2024, the group moved ito 311 E. Main St. in Carrboro, adding a loading dock, larger kitchen, and a walk-in cooler. It has a pantry where families can shop for fresh and shelf-stable foods, in addition to delivering two bags of groceries weekly to each child.

The farm expansion will allow them to double the fresh produce deliveries to roughly a dozen items per child each week, Tippins said.

“It’s allowed us to provide more food to our kids, but we’re also serving more high-quality food to our kids, serving more kids, because we’re not having to spend as much money on the food that we give out to our kids,” she said.

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This story was originally published September 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM.

Tammy Grubb

The News & Observer

919-829-8926

Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.