KRISTEN AND Shane Meyers have made a life out of giving for well over a decade by being a vital part of the farming community in both Lebanon and Watertown.
From Shane’s managing a 1,000-acre farm in Lebanon to the couple running their own 15-acre farm in Watertown, Kristen and Shane work tirelessly to provide for their family and the community around them. They not only provide food, but they also give hope and guidance to those in need.
GETTING INTO THE BUSINESS
According to Kristen, both she and Shane grew up in farming communities. As a married couple, they decided to make their own path in the world of farming. For the past 17 years, Shane has managed Pembroke Farms, owned by Jack Lowery in Lebanon. In 2013, they purchased their own farm, Wellspring Farm.
“Raising animals and growing our own food is very familiar to us,” Kristen explained. “After purchasing our property, we dove right in with purchasing cattle, chickens, and goats. We produce about 20 beef cattle and 25 pigs a year that are available to purchase as family shares, many of which we process and package ourselves, along with about 40 laying hens. [The farm has] a large vegetable garden that grows green beans, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, summer and winter squashes, peppers, sweet corn, herbs, and flowers.”
Kristen said that since 2013, the farm has been successful thanks to their respect for the animals they raise.
“We were able to increase our beef sales as word spread that we were producing delicious meats that were raised with care and respect for the animal from birth to harvest,” she said. “Knowing everything that has gone into an animal its entire life and meeting that animal’s need for open pasture, quality feed, socialization, and kindness gives us great confidence in the products we sell.”
She also added that farming has become a family affair. The couple’s five children play a significant role in keeping the farm up and running.
“They help with all things farming,” Kristen said. “From feeding, collecting eggs, harvesting vegetables, to butchering and packaging meat, it’s certainly a family affair, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
REACHING OUT
Since the farm’s beginnings, the couple has wanted their farm to have benefits beyond just their family.
The farm’s name, Wellspring Farm, comes from the Bible verse John 4:14.
“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Kristen said, “We believe God calls us to be good stewards of all He gives us, and the food we grow is absolutely a part of that stewardship. We want people to feel as blessed in feeding their family our products as we do in feeding them to ours.”
That purpose would lead the couple to help single mothers in the area.
“Several years ago, we were leading a small group that had quite a few single mothers in it, and we began to think about how we could help serve these women and their children practically with what we were doing on our farm,” Kristen said. “We decided to give a portion of every beef sale — either meat or proceeds from the meat — to help fill their freezers or help with rent and utilities.”
Additionally, their church, The Journey Church, was involved with a local recovery house for women called The Hope Society. Thanks to a growth in beef sales, the couple could extend their outreach.
“We saw an opportunity to help more single moms who were just getting back on their feet after graduating [from] the program,” Kristen explained. “Our hearts were tender towards these women who were doing the good and difficult work of overcoming addiction while also running hard after Jesus to help guide them in their new lives of sobriety.”
Over the past five years, Kristen stated that their small farm has been able to do big things by donating hundreds of pounds of meat directly to single-parent families in the community as well as supporting local ministries.
EDUCATING THE FUTURE
Through their outreach to single mothers, Shane began to see another way the farm could help those in need.
“He began to be burdened by the lack of male leadership he was seeing in the sons of the single moms we knew,” Kristen explained. “He started thinking about how no one was teaching these boys how to be men, treat women, work, pray, serve, lead, hunt and fish, and how to handle tools, and fix or build something. It was overwhelming, to say the least — when you thought about all the practical skills and spiritual needs that these boys were missing out on.”
Starting small, Shane gathered a small group of boys and began teaching them life skills, such as how to handle a rifle and shoot a deer.
“He did this on the ‘big farm,’ which is the farm he manages. The boys grew in confidence as they learned something totally new and how proud they were to provide food for their families when they got a deer,” Kristen said.
