Our Mission and Your Partnership in 2022, and Beyond

Our Mission and Your Partnership in 2022, and Beyond

by Sylvia Burgos Toftness, Interim Executive Director, Farm Table Foundation

Farm Table’s mission is about deliciousness anchored in the health of our land, plants and livestock; in our community; and in vibrant partnerships with farmers and food lovers. These qualities are all linked because what you eat and how it’s grown matters. 

Right now, Farm Table is striving to meet its mission while managing a very significant budget deficit. We are making short-term changes now so that Farm Table can be strong for the long term. We are focusing our resources to support our strong core – the restaurant. Future programs and other experiences will be rooted and grow from there.

Why the restaurant? Because it demonstrates the mission with every meal.  

Take our delicious pork chop, for example.

Not only is the pig grown humanely in Amery, but Ayla and James Dodge at Blackbrook Farm use farming practices that restore soils and promote high nutrition. In addition, the Dodge’s purchase locally, thereby keeping money circulating within our area. These linkages help reweave a community food web that stretches across the lower St. Croix River Valley watershed and, ultimately, to YOU.  

Similar contributions are made by the farmers who grow our Thanksgiving turkeys, other pastured poultry and sheep, pork and grass-fed-grass-finished beef, grass-fed dairy, and sustainably grown vegetables, fruit, grains, and mushrooms. 

Thank you for being a very significant part of this movement. 

You are the critical final link in the food chain. Your choices demonstrate the undeniable ties between farming practice, great taste, nutrition, community, and local economic viability. When you partner with Farm Table, you are helping rebuild a healthier, more resilient farm-to-plate food system. You are also linking arms to encourage a more informed and exciting network of producers, consumers, and advocates for environmental stewardship and high-quality food and fiber. 

And that’s what our mission is all about.  

Thank you for your support in 2021. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and the very best of this holiday season. We look forward to engaging with you in 2022 and beyond. 

Sylvia Burgos Toftness is Farm Table’s interim executive director. Burgos Toftness brings a deep understanding and appreciation for Farm Table’s history and the local agricultural scene. She and her husband David Toftness own and operate Bull Brook Keep, their grass-fed, grass-finished beef farm in nearby Clear Lake, WI.

Prior to farming, Burgos Toftness had a long career in public relations serving for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations in manufacturing, government, organic farming and philanthropy. A former member of the Farm Table Foundation Board of Directors, she currently serves on the boards of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association and the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services organization.