Maceo Hart-Kapic - Founder & Director
Maceo is the founder and director of H&K Farms, currently overseeing all operations from field to market as well as administrative and planning work. Maceo founded H&K Farms in 2013 when it was then located on the historical Gibson Ranch County Park. Learning from Elle Huftill of Soil Born Farms while in high school. Maceo then grew H&K Farms from 1 acre to over 140 acres as it stands today. Located on three main farm sites along the banks of the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento City, and on a large public site along Dry Creek.
Today, Maceo is finishing his degree in Agroecology with a minor in Food Systems, at the University of California, Berkeley. Here Maceo is currently conducting experiments on the flavor of tomatoes grown with various compost treatments. Maceo was also awarded the 2018 Global Food Initiative Student Research Fellowship at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Where Maceo worked on conducting research in the lab studying long term carbon sequestration as effected by tillage and soil organic matter in an urban agroecosystem.
Sherrie Hart - Program Manager
Sherrie, Maceo's mother, joined the farm in its 4th year, as Maceo graduated high school. She has been farm manager for the past 3 years and continues to conduct most of the day to day work in the field and at the family's farmer's market operations. Sherrie worked for several years as a Montessori Teacher and has a background in early childhood development. Sherrie, also conducts experiential learning opportunities on the farm with classrooms of all ages. With her knowledge in the classroom and in the field, Sherrie brings to the farm a vital capacity to engage with young minds around food and farm literacy.
Kajol Gupta - Outreach Partner
Kajol Gupta currently oversees the grant writing process as well as the farm Instagram. Kajol is a researcher and student at UC Berkeley, finishing her two
degrees in Environmental Justice and Gender Studies. She has taught courses on Food Justice
and Sustainable Gardening at the UC Berkeley
Student Organic Garden Association as well as served as a commissioner for the Berkeley City Council's, Community Health Commission.
Kajol finds that true sustainable solutions come from paying attention to the intersection of both ecological as well as social issues. The combination of environmental justice and feminist theory can provide an interdisciplinary framework which is critical in making a fertile food system that holistically addresses structural and systemic inequities and injustices.
Sammy Rea - Farming Partner
Sammy is an alumnus of the California Farm Academy, from the Center for Land Based Learning. For the past year Sammy has been farming and operating Gibson Ranch Produce by herself, on 2/3 of an acre. She recently lost her land use, and is now working with H&K Farms.
Sammy will be continuing to grow her farm management skill set here at H&K Farms while participating in field operations, as well as marketing. Sammy loves her field partner and dog Vato, who always knows how to pull some weeds, or not!
Jon Kupkowski - Farming Partner
(The Refarmery)
Jon has been our neighbor for several years and owns and operates the Refarmery, a dynamic and intricate homestead farming operation on 1 acre. Jon currently supplies specialty produce items to our AgroEco CSA. He also shares in the growing of grain on our fields. Together we produce several acres of winter wheat and peas which are then fed to Jon's chicken flock to support his egg laying operation at the Refarmery, and also baked into bread.
From Jon's website: "At the ReFarmery, we draw inspiration from the work of Sir Albert Howard- a farming pioneer who wrote about the interdependence between healthy soils, plants and livestock for healthy foods, and as a result, healthier communities. " Jon shares our values of mindful and ecologically restorative management practices. Together we hope to revitalize small local grain production in Sacramento.
*Maceo Hart-Kapic is also a Big Picture Learning graduate.*