Dear community,
We could use your help raising money to cover the expenses of this year’s Farm-ily Reunion <3
In full financial transparency, Farm-ily costs $18,000 to put on. Since we started this event, we have prioritized paying collaborators for their labor and producers at market value for their products. Out of the total budget this year, $17,000 went directly back into the hands of Illinois farmers, artists, and small businesses. The food budget alone was $5,000 which allowed us to buy ingredients from 30 regional farms including:
Arnold’s Farm, Aunt Bees Greenhouse, Blue Barrel Produce, Cahokia Rice, Deerland Dairy, Dotson's Farm, Doudlah Farm, Earthlore Farm, Ecotone Herbs, Fair Lawn Farm, Finding Justice Garden, Garlic eScape, Hazzard Free Farm, Holy Heron Farm, JoDaviess Local Foods, Meadowlark Organics, Mick Klug Farm, Middle Sis Farm, Mint Creek Farm, Native Harvest Ojibwe Products, Nichols Farm, Nordic Creamery, North Sky Creamery, Oriana’s Orchards, Owls Roost Farm, Peasant Revolt Farm, Pink Tiger Farm, The Loving Seed, Wild Trillium Farm, and Zumwalt Acres
Technically, a true cost ticket for this event would be $150. That would allow us to cover our costs without making any additional money. We recognize, though, that that cost is inaccessible to many members in our community, so we sell tickets on a sliding scale. This year we only sold 6 tickets at $150. The bulk of the tickets were bought at the lowest range ($50) or given away for free to folks who collaborate with us.
To make up for this difference we are supported by an amazing web of sponsors which for 2026 included: Dave Winters, Elawa Farm, Food:Land:Opportunity, Foundation for Northwest Illinois, Experimental Station, Illinois Stewardship Alliance, National Young Farmers Coalition, Savanna Institute, The Conservation Fund.
This year we’re also reaching out to community members like you to help us make sure we can keep Farm-ily going. You can support Farm-ily by making a donation to our chapter here. Donations over $50 will receive a linocut patch by Stef Funk! You can also support by ordering a t-shirt or poster from this year’s Farm-ily, designed by Olly Costello (details below). For all purchases, venmo @Jeanne_Janson.
The NIYF team does not pay themselves for the many hours they put into planning and hosting this event. It is a labor of love and a way to give back to our community. Someday, we’d love to make a small stipend from this work though because we want to ensure this work is sustainable for our team. Any profit made from this year’s Farm-ily will be split amongst our leadership team.
Thank you to everyone who has supported Farm-ily over the last five years, whether that be financially or by giving your energy, presence, creativity, and love to the gathering. We are so grateful for this Farm-ily!
Reach out to northernillinoisyoungfarmers@gmail.com with any questions.
In gratitude,
Northern Illinois Young Farmers
For sale:
T-Shirt: $30 (2 XL and S available)
Poster: $20
Venmo @Jeanne_Janson to place an order. Include:
Address for shipping (pick-up in Humboldt Park also available)
Item(s) you’re ordering
Size, for t-shirts
Cream Hanes Beefy Tee
2 XL and Small available
Olly Costello
Olly Costello is a non-binary, queer illustrator, prison industrial complex abolitionist, urban food growing enthusiast and community seed saver who is committed to participating in the creative, collective work of building a liberated and flourishing future for all of us.
Through their artistic and community based practices they explore themes of interconnectedness, spiritual ecology, community resistance, anti-imperialist world building, emergence, accountability, prison industrial complex abolition, transformative justice and belonging. Olly finds direction and purpose in recognizing the power our radical imaginations have in shaping the world we live in and knows that this is one of our most essential tools.
Olly hopes their work can be a small contributing part of creating our new culture that is grounded in honoring the inherent sacredness of all beings and pushing us beyond violent cultures of imperialism, white supremacy and capitalism toward a culture of accountability, collective flourishing and abundance.
Risograph on poster paper 9×12 in
Donations over $50 receive a linocut patch by Stef Funk!
Farm-ily Testimonial:
I've said and written the word Farm-ily what feels like a thousand times in this last few months of preparing and sharing. As the event has once again come and gone, I find myself sitting with that word, Farm-ily, and the greater scope as Farm-ily Reunion. As it rolls off the tongue and clicks on the keyboard it causes a stir in my heart, a deepening of the breath. Family is not always who we are born into, but who we choose to create life with. Family Reunions are for gathering and celebrating that bond, meeting the new spouses/babies, an opportunity to gather with those that we don't see or speak to often, a fact that does not lessen the love and bond we share.
These last three years coming the the Farm-ily reunion have created a family of folks I would have never found otherwise. You as a farm family have expanded my capacity of love, incited deconstruction of beliefs, and inspired me to pursue things that I could have never imagined.
Your participation in sincere connections, unabashed creativity, ecstatic forms of expression, and passion for food/farming/the earth all coming together on a piece of magical healing land.
For those who have experienced it, Farm-ily Reunion is now more than a catchy title for an event--it's a visceral experience, a light in the dark, a knowing of Family.
My deepest appreciation to every single human, plant, and animal for another incredible reunion.
-Amera
