Meet Jennifer Gardner | Founder and President of Farm of Hope

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Gardner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Since childhood, I have always had a special place in my heart for ALL animals. All of my adult life, I have volunteered with animal rescue shelters and organizations. Eleven years ago, my husband and I decided to leave our city life and move to the country. We wanted a slower pace of life, to be able to spend more time in nature and most importantly for me, was being able to live in an area with minimal zoning restrictions to adopt and provide a forever home to more rescued companion and farm animals.
Prior to the farm, I had been a vegetarian most of my life and did not wear animal products or use non cruelty free items. However, after seeing our neighbors’ cows and chickens, and researching into the treatment of animals in the egg and dairy industry, I became a vegan in January of 2012. Science has shown that animal agriculture has the largest destructive impact on our planet and climate change. I believe others may also become more interested in shifting towards a vegan lifestyle after learning about farm animal’s unique “personalities” and observing meaningful connections with farm animals similar to more typical bonds with companion animals like cats and dogs. Also, to demonstrate, it is easier than ever to live an eco-friendly, compassionate, and sustainable lifestyle. I created Farm of Hope to be able to rescue and provide sanctuary to more abused, abandoned, and neglected animals in need. Also, to be able to provide information to the public and advocate for animals on a larger scale.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I do my best to live a life of purpose and have dedicated my legal career to representing victim foster children involved in the dependency system through the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County. I believe in equal access, quality representation and justice for all, especially for children in the foster care system. Second hand trauma and compassion fatigue affect many involved in the child welfare system. While rescuing farm animals and being involved in the animal welfare world, does add additional trauma, I find caring for and spending time with them is one way I relieve stress, refocus, and make a tangible difference helping the animals.
While we have been adopting and providing a loving home to farm animals for over 10 years, I recently established Farm of Hope. Farm of Hope, is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) Animal Sanctuary committed to rescuing, providing sanctuary, education and advocacy on behalf of all animals. Farm of Hope provides a forever home to many farm animals rescued from abuse, abandonment or neglect. I continue to be the primary caretaker of all the animals, ensuring all of their needs are provided for. Additionally, I currently am responsible for every aspect of Farm of Hope. From admin work, preparing our monthly newsletters, managing our website and social media, applying for grants, preparing our educational components/tours/events and all the not so fun things that come along with running a nonprofit. This side of animal rescue work is all new to me. It is challenging and can become overwhelming at times. However, I continue to give it my all and excited to see what is to come for Farm of Hope.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We moved to our Palm Beach County Farm eleven years ago which requires daily routines of caring for the animals, maintenance and repair. Heading into town for leisure activities requires a lot more advanced planning. However, I very much enjoy and always recommend: Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach, Riverbend Park in Jupiter or John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach (hiking trails and rentals for biking, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding), Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter and Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. I was born and raised in South Florida and often visited many different beaches in Broward and Miami. However, my favorite public beach in all of South Florida is the Jupiter/Juno Beach. It is beautiful, quiet and includes a 2.5 mile section for dogs to play off leash.
While not as Vegan friendly as Miami or Broward, many Palm Beach County restaurants now offer vegan options. Also, some of my favorite all Vegan restaurants that I would recommend to everyone, including meat eaters, include Parlour Vegan Bakery (Boca Raton) Darbster (Lake Worth), Dope Vegan (WPB), Dina’s Vegan Deli and Desserts (Rivera Beach), Christopher’s Kitchen (Palm Beach Gardens) and Plant Based Mafia(Palm Beach Gardens).

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am grateful that I have supportive family, friends and colleagues that have led me to where I am today. Special shout out to my husband for agreeing to move to the country so we could rescue more animals. We purchased a property that required his extensive work to even be livable and then grade and fence eleven acres, build structures for our animals in order to ensure they were predator proof and built our large garden greenhouse. Thankfully, he is the handiest person that I know and in return has taught me to be handier and more self-sufficient. He also does the never-ending maintenance, improvement, and repairs. While I am the primary animal caretaker, he fills in when I have early morning court or must arrive home after dark.

There are way too many admirable animal welfare/rescue organizations to mention here. However, shout out to Farm Sanctuary, the founding farm animal sanctuary in the United States and one of the largest. I had the privilege of attending a three-day conference at their Watkins Glen, NY location and was able to see their animals receive the best of everything. Our Farm of Hope is modeled after Farm Sanctuary, just on a much much smaller scale.

Website: https://www.thefarmofhope.com/

Instagram: farmofhopeflorida

Image Credits
Farm of Hope