CFS Conversations with Glynwood: Farmworker Health & Housing
Farmworker Health & Housing
A webinar co-hosted by Climate Farm School and the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming
Housing and health are foundational to a just food system — yet farmworkers across the region continue to face precarious housing and barriers to care. Join Climate Farm School and the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming for a conversation on what it takes to build lasting security for the people who grow our food.
We'll hear from Jules Farr, Director of Growing Homes for regional farmer housing security at Glynwood, whose work spans land conservation, farmworker justice, and community land trusts across the Hudson Valley, and Michelle Lynn Hughes, who is currently convening with the Hudson Valley Farmer Health Working Group, a collaborative effort exploring practical pathways to improve the affordability, availability, and navigation of health care services for farmers and farm workers across the region.
Together, they'll explore the systems, policies, and partnerships needed to ensure farmworkers have stable homes and access to the health resources they deserve.
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Jules Farr is the Director of Growing Homes for housing security for farmers in the Hudson Valley. Jules brings a background in land conservation, agriculture, farmworker justice and housing to Growing Homes at Glynwood. Jules is the former Executive Director of the Kingston Land Trust. There, they established the foundations of what would become Taproot Community Land Trust for permanently affordable housing. Jules also co-led two land reparations initiatives, the protection of the Pine Street African Burial Ground and the development of Land in Black Hands. As a trailblazer for socially responsible conservation, they served on the Land Trust Alliance’s National Leadership Council. Jules’ previous work was in communications at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub where Jules co-built the language justice program. Most recently they were on the development team at Sweet Freedom Farm, a Black-led abolitionist farm. Jules holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture, a certificate in Permaculture Design and a certificate in English-Spanish translation. Jules has called Kingston home for the past twelve years.
Michelle Lynn Hughes is the Director of Regional Food Programs at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, where she leads initiatives that center farmers in efforts to address food insecurity, food apartheid, and community health challenges. Her work draws on more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of agriculture, racial equity, and food justice. Prior to her current role, she co-founded and co-directed Rolling Grocer 19, a food justice initiative and full-line grocery store that uses a tiered pricing model to expand access to fresh, high-quality food for food‑insecure households. She has also served as Director of Investments and Partnerships at the National Young Farmers Coalition and led GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development Project and FARMroots programs, supporting 20 immigrant families to establish independent farm businesses that now steward more than 400 acres collectively. Michelle earned a B.S. in Conservation Ecology with a concentration in Agroecology from Rutgers University and, with her husband, co‑owns and stewards 12 acres in Germantown, NY, where they grow medicinal herbs as Reclamation Herb Farm.