PURCELLVILLE, VA, July 1, 2025
Facility to Support Education, Hunger Relief, and Fundraising Efforts
JK Community Farm, a 150-acre nonprofit farm in Loudoun County that grows and donates healthy food to food banks across the DC region, is in the planning stage of building a Food Education Center, a multi-purpose facility that will support its educational mission and farming efforts.
“We work to improve access to healthy food to address hunger. As part of this, we also cultivate people’s understanding of where food comes from, how it’s grown, and why nutrition and stewardship matter,” explained JK Community Farm Executive Director Samantha Kuhn. “The Food Education Center is an exciting opportunity to balance our commitment to the land and hunger relief. The center will be about resilience, sustainability, and expanding food access while preserving the beauty and purpose of this land.”
The 7200 sq ft center will:
- Provide essential infrastructure like restrooms, cold storage, and shelter for the thousands of students and volunteers who come out each season
- Offer space for hands-on nutrition and agriculture education aligned with Virginia’s Standards of Learning
- Provide a kitchen for flash freezing and preparing value-added products, so families have access to nourishing food that lasts longer, is easier to prepare, and remains available during the winter months. This is especially helpful for those juggling multiple jobs and limited time.
- Host mission-driven events like farm-to-table dinners, workshops, and hopefully even weddings where the revenue supports our operations and provides meals for families in need.
The goal would be to start building the indoor facility early 2026. The farm operates on land donated by JK Moving and placed in conservation easement to ensure that it is protected from development and saved for future generations. The farm is permitted by-right to build an education center on the property but has asked the county for a minor special exception to host a small number of private events each year, allowing the nonprofit farm to generate essential revenue to sustain and expand its work.
The farm is an important provider of healthy food for those in need in the DC area. The farm welcomes an average of 7,000 volunteers each growing season, many from corporate teams, who help plant, tend, and harvest over 247,000 pounds of food each year, all of which is donated to food pantry partners like Loudoun Hunger Relief, Food for Others, AFAC, and DC Central Kitchen.
The Food Education Center will complement and enhance the farm’s other educational elements, including the farm’s Outdoor Food Learning Center, which is currently being built. Designed for the farm’s field trip students and youth volunteers, the outdoor center will include an outside classroom and an educational space for sensory exploration that will help children learn, explore, and develop essential life skills through hands-on interaction with the farm’s
natural environment. Children will dig in the soil at the HITT Play Zone, plant seeds, smell herbs, touch varied textures, and observe pollinators at work.
Every educational program at the farm is aligned with educational standards and designed to engage students from diverse backgrounds, ensuring equitable access to transformative food education experiences. The JK Community Farm hosts 3,000 students each season for education through its field trip program, and the Indoor and Outdoor Food Education Centers will help deepen their learning experience.
ABOUT JK COMMUNITY FARM JK Community Farm, a nonprofit started in 2018 seeks to have a lasting and healthy impact on struggling families within the Washington, DC region by growing and donating chemical-free, healthy produce and protein to those struggling with hunger. As the nation’s largest chemical-free community farm with 100% of its yield donated, the farm’s food is distributed by nonprofit partners: Loudoun Hunger Relief, Food for Others, Arlington Food Assistance Center, and DC Central Kitchen.