The Hill Farm
A nonprofit may get a second chance at running a farm property owned by the Harrisburg School District.
At a school board meeting on Tuesday night, district officials said they would like to reconsider the termination of an agreement with Harrisburg-based Wildheart Ministries to operate the district’s Joshua Farm property.
In November, receiver Dr. Lori Suski terminated the agreement with the nonprofit, which leased 213 S. 18th St. from the district since 2023 and operated a farm and farmers market on the land. At that time, Suski did not justify the reasoning behind cutting ties. However, the agreement with Wildheart was once before terminated, and shortly after, reinstated, due to Suski and the board’s concerns over the safety and use of the property.
Following the November district decision to end the relationship with Wildheart, representatives and supporters of the nonprofit spoke out to ask for a reconsideration, or at least additional time to remove their equipment from the property.
In response, Suski has since extended the ending of Wildheart’s lease from Dec. 31 to Jan. 31.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Suski also presented more detailed background on the termination decision, and why she now believes the district should reconsider.
Suski said that Wildheart had been operating the farm, calling it the Hill Farm, informally since about 2017. In 2023, a “small handful” of residents came to the district with a concern that a formal Request For Proposals (RFP) process wasn’t initiated for the farm, so the district issued an RFP and selected Wildheart to continue its work, she said. However, “detractors in the community” continued issuing complaints, some of which Suski said were “slightly legitimate” and others not, that the district addressed with Wildheart.
For the past year and a half, Suski said the district received no complaints about the farm, until around the time of the 2024 presidential election, when people began inquiring about Wildheart’s “alleged ties to certain political and ideological groups,” Suski said.
Suski also said that concerns were brought up about whether district students were being involved in the farm’s educational programming. But, at previous board meetings, a district student and staff member shared their experiences, stating otherwise.
“We learned in the past few weeks that hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funds have been awarded to Wildheart to perform the work on the farm,” Suski said. “We also learned that there is a tremendously positive impact on the community by growing and selling vegetables to people in what is known as a food desert community.”
At the November meeting where Suski terminated the agreement, district Superintendent Dr. Benjamin Henry had also proposed selling the land. He clarified on Tuesday that he made that proposal because Wildheart had expressed interest in buying it. However, several board members said they were opposed to a sale.
“If the board wishes to hold onto this piece of land, then why not allow Wildheart to continue its work through the 2025 year and beyond until such time that the board makes a decision to do something with the property,” Suski said. “As receiver, I’m asking the board to reconsider its stance.”
Several board members said that, after hearing more information and talking to community members and Wildheart staff, they were interested in allowing Wildheart to stay at the farm for at least another year.
“I think we were given limited information; we did not make a good decision based on that limited information and I think since then, the community has been engaged, we’ve been provided data, and, I don’t want to speak for everyone on the board, but I think we are, at least I am, in favor of extending the lease,” said board member Autumn Anderson.
Suski said that there will be a motion on the agenda for the Jan. 28 meeting to extend Wildheart’s lease for a year with the option of renewal.
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