Crista Barfield, founder and CEO of FarmerJawn in Elkins Park, is responding to an Axios report saying the state sent a cease-and-desist letter last September ordering her to stop soliciting donations for the FarmerJawn & Friends Foundation Fund, the nonprofit arm of her organization, until it is properly registered as a 501c3.
The report also said Barfield “hasn’t paid more than $6,000 in taxes and penalties, per state records obtained by Axios.” FarmerJawn is a 128-acre farm which “enables regenerative organic food production by and for underserved communities”, their website says. The farm also has a for-profit entity: FarmerJawn Farming & Retail.
Barfield confirmed the timing of the cease-and-desist letter, as well as the back taxes, in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday.
From The Inquirer’s coverage:
According to IRS records, FarmerJawn & Friends’ nonprofit status, formally granted in 2022, was automatically revoked in May 2024 due to not filing a mandatory annual return. Barfield said FarmerJawn & Friends hasn’t solicited donations, and any it has accepted in the last year have been processed through its fiscal sponsor, New York-based nonprofit Jubilee Gift Galaxy. (Fiscal sponsorship is often used by newly formed charitable organizations; the arrangement gives them a way to collect tax-deductible donations through an already established nonprofit. Some organizations opt to use the arrangement long-term, allowing them to outsource administrative responsibilities.)
“We just simply can’t accept donations directly to us, and that’s just paperwork. There’s nothing nefarious or anything else that had caused that issue,” Barfield told The Inquirer. “It’s something that needs to be handled and taken care of, but at the same time, it doesn’t stop the work that we’re continuing to do.”
Barfield said FarmerJawn & Friends may not re-establish its nonprofit status and anticipates that FarmerJawn Foods, the for-profit arm, will transition to certified B Corp designation for socially responsible companies later this year.
“Running a nonprofit … it’s a lot. It requires a lot of oversight, and we just don’t have the technical assistance to be able to manage that on our own right now,” she said. “We still get to do business for good working in conjunction with our for-profit business.”
She also owns a FarmerJawn farm in Westtown, Chester County, which was subjected to racist and antisemitic vandalism in August 2024. The Westtown Farm Store is opening for the season on Tuesday, April 15, according to FarmerJawn’s Facebook page.
In April 2024, Barfield was named a Leadership Honoree by the James Beard Foundation.
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