our roots

The Farmer Housing Working Group was formed as a cohort of Hudson Valley farm owners, managers, workers, and service providers dedicated to raising awareness of the farmer housing crisis and advancing solutions. We were supported in 2022 and 2023 by a seed grant from Northeast SARE.
In 2023, we put together 4 two-hour learning sessions to educate our community and raise awareness about farmer housing. These sessions reached 150 stakeholders and are all available at our website. We also convened 40 stakeholders for a day long conference.
In 2024 we secured some serious funding for this project that has allowed us to hire a full-time Farmer Housing Development Specialist to shepherd this work in 2025 and beyond. We also found an institutional home, the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, to incubate our project as we move from a grassroots working group to a more formalized organization.

2025 AND BEYOND

With a strong base of research and relationship-building carried out by the Farmer Housing Working Group, this year we are continuing to build relationships with farms, affordable housing nonprofits, land trusts and municipalities that are interested in building farmer and farmworker housing both on and off farms.
Through this effort we are collecting information on the barriers to and opportunities of developing housing.
After having surveyed 80 English-speaking farmers and farmworkers around their needs for housing, we have hired a bilingual organizer to deliver surveys to Spanish-speaking farmers and farmworkers.
We are acting as a clearinghouse to provide information around policy, funding opportunities, zoning, site planning, and local specialists. We support a range of efforts by acting as a facilitator for developing farmer and farmworker housing.
We are also identifying potential partners for developing and rehabing housing.
We are working to become an independent nonprofit organization so that we can begin to develop housing.

Our Team

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Jules Farr

They/Them

Farmer Housing Development Specialist

Jules brings a background in land conservation, agriculture, farmworker justice and housing to the Farmer Housing Working Group at Glynwood. Jules is the former Executive Director of the Kingston Land Trust. There, they established the foundations of what would become the Taproot Community Land Trust for permanently affordable housing. Jules also co-led two land reparations initiatives, the protection of the Pine Street African Burial Ground and the development of Land in Black Hands. As a trailblazer for socially responsible conservation, they served on the Land Trust Alliance’s National Leadership Council. Jules’ previous work was in communications at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub where Jules co-built the language justice program. Most recently they were on the development team at Sweet Freedom Farm, a Black-led abolitionist farm. Jules holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture, a certificate in Permaculture Design and a certificate in English-Spanish translation. They currently serve as an advisor for land rematriation at the Native Food Hub Alliance. Jules has called Kingston home for the past eleven years.

Emilyn Sosa

Elle/Ella/They/She

Organizadora Bilingüe/Bilingual Organizer

Emilyn se conecta directamente con la comunidad agrícola de habla hispana para comprender mejor las necesidades de vivienda y apoyar la investigación en curso sobre la crisis de vivienda de los trabajadores agrícolas del Valle del Hudson. Anteriormente, Emilyn dirigió La Nueva Siembra, un programa de formación de negocios agrícolas en español en GrowNYC, donde profundizaron las relaciones con los agricultores inmigrantes y latinos y fue testigo de primera mano de los desafíos sistémicos a los que se enfrentan los trabajadores agrícolas de la región. Aporta esta experiencia a su trabajo de organización, elevando las voces de los trabajadores agrícolas y construyendo soluciones a largo plazo basadas en la equidad y el cuidado.

Emilyn will connect directly with the Spanish-speaking farming community to better understand housing needs and support ongoing research into the Hudson Valley farmworker housing crisis. Previously, Emilyn led La Nueva Siembra, a Spanish-language farm business training program at GrowNYC, where they deepened relationships with immigrant and Latinx farmers and witnessed firsthand the systemic challenges facing the region’s agricultural workers. They bring this experience into their organizing work—uplifting farmworker voices and building toward long-term solutions rooted in equity and care.

Advisory CommitteE

Our Advisory Committee is made up of Hudson Valley farmers and farmworkers from different counties.

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Monti Lawson

He/Him

Monti is the Founder and Lead Land Steward of Catalyst Collaborative Farm and Site Supervisor and Farmer in Residence at WILDSEED Community Farm & Healing Village in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

He is a Black and Gay beginning farmer who has been a community gardener and urban farmer in NYC for over a decade. He graduated from Farm School NYC and is an active member of the FSNYC alumni community.

He is also a member of Black Farmer's United of NYS, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, NYS BIPOC Grower Support Network, and a member of the Leadership Advisory Committee for the Equity Fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

For 2023, he was honored to serve as the inaugural representative for Manhattan and Staten Island on the USDA Farm Service Urban County Committee for New York City.

Bryn Roshong

She/Her

Bryn started farming in 2010 alongside her husband, Wes. After working at a variety of organic veggie operations as well as tending sheep and cattle, she and Wes struggled to find a workable land lease where they could farm for good. In 2016, it was a stroke of luck and good timing that led them to land in Kingston, where they founded Solid Ground Farm, a four-season organic veggie farm. No longer a full-time farmer, Bryn spent 8 years working at The Farm Bridge, a food manufacturing plant in Kingston. Her passion was helping farmers get their value-added products made. Since the closure of The Farm Bridge in late 2021, Bryn has been leading a team in developing a new local-food processing facility called the Crop Shop, whose aim is to provide value-added product services at a variety of scales, to serve the needs of regional farmers as well as statewide institutions and others in search of local minimally-processed local foods. Bryn and Wes live in Kingston on the farm with their two little kids and wandering puppy, and fleet of broken down farm vehicles.

Raul Carreon

He/Him

Raul is the Distribution Logistics and Food Safety Manager at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub in Hurley, NY. Originally from South Texas, Raul has been working on farms for over a decade. His expertise is in post-harvest production. He keeps track of harvest schedules, runs the wash and pack line, and gets produce out to customers as quickly as possible, all while exceeding safety protocols set by Good Agriculture Practices (GAPS), Organic Certification and the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). He also cares about language justice and increasing food access in his community.

Jody Bolluyt

She/Her

Jody is one of the farmers at Roxbury Farm CSA. Jody and Keri Latiolias own and manage the farm and along with a great team of people produce organic vegetables, grass fed beef, and pastured pork for their CSA members in the Hudson Valley and NYC. Jody has farmed at Roxbury Farm CSA since 1999. She is on the board of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement an org that organizes with immigrants and allies to collectively support, empower and defend our communities. Jody also serves on the board of Equity Trust, an organization that promotes equity in the world by changing the way people think about and hold property.

Chris Nickell

They/Them

Chris Nickell is a community organizer and land steward. With previous work experience in academia and state government, Chris turned to agriculture in 2022. After growing vegetables on farms in Westchester and Rockland Counties in 2022 and 2023, they founded Finca Seremos in 2024 in southern Dutchess County with their spouse, Brenda González. Seremos is a food justice project to grow fresh, organic, nutrient-dense produce for Chris and Brenda's communities in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx, the mid-Hudson Valley, and in 2025 for their new home of Sullivan County. Chris joined the Farmer Housing Working Group in late 2022 and co-stewarded the project in 2023 and 2024.

Megan Larmer

She/Her

Megan is the Senior Director of Programs. She leads projects that convene food and farming professionals to execute training, collective efforts, and creative projects that further the development of a regional food system in the Hudson Valley. Primary amongst these are Glynwood's Cider Project, the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition, and the Food Sovereignty Fund. Previously, Megan was Director of Strategic Initiatives and Community Outreach for Slow Food USA. In 2024 she received her PhD in anthropology for her research amongst regional food and farming advocates in the Hudson Valley from the University of Exeter where she is an associate of the Center for Rural Policy Research. Megan also holds an MA with distinction in Anthropology from SOAS, University of London, where her research focused on seed exchange, first-generation women farmers and food heritage. Her broad range of experience in food and agriculture, including ten years as a restaurant professional, farmer's market manager, and community garden organizer, inspire Megan's continued determination to build more just and joyful food systems.

WORKING GROUP 2022-2024

CONTACT US

Use the form below, or email us at jfarr@glynwood.org

FARMER HOUSING WORKING GROUP
working towards developing farmer housing in the Hudson Valley

our roots

2025 AND BEYOND

Our Team

Advisory CommitteE

WORKING GROUP 2022-2024

CONTACT US

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