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Epiphany Lutheran Church, Pickerington, Ohio
Chief farm operator, Preston Family Farm; co-founder, Winchester Farm Exchange
I grew up in a tiny congregation in Centerville, Ohio, Epiphany Lutheran. That congregation eventually grew into a large and thriving church where I was baptized, confirmed and married, and where my faith was shaped in meaningful ways. I watched my dad sponsor Cambodian refugees as they came to the United States, helping set up their apartments and welcoming their families. I also saw him teach Sunday school and my mom serve faithfully in the food pantry.
When I married and moved to Columbus, my husband and I found ourselves drawn to Epiphany Lutheran in Pickerington, a congregation very similar to where I’d grown up. It became our church home, where my husband and children were baptized, and where I had the opportunity to give back by teaching Sunday school myself. Today, we split our time between Epiphany and St. Paul Lutheran, a small, rural congregation in Westerville that’s very different in size and setting. We deeply value the variety of experiences these communities offer and the ways each is shaping and enriching our faith journey.
Epiphany has provided me a foundation of support and compassionate care in every season of life. Weekly worship is a place where I can recharge, find inspiration, and feel encouraged as I continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus and live out my faith in meaningful ways.
My church community is family to me. When I’m in need of prayer, they know how to faithfully intercede on my behalf. When we have served others together through the church, our collective efforts allowed us to make a greater impact than we could on our own. They walk alongside me in every season—celebrating joys and offering support in grief. They have been my partners in faith who have helped guide, encourage and strengthen me on my journey.
At Preston Family Farm, farming for social good has been our mission, along with providing our kids opportunities to learn, grow, and appreciate hard work and God’s creation. We believe that good food is a right, that everyone deserves equal access to nourishing food, and that food is medicine. God has created everything we need to properly nourish our bodies, and we see farming as a way to steward those gifts faithfully.
Community is central to our work. We’ve opened our farm to children in town so they, too, can raise livestock for 4-H and have access to agricultural experiences they might not otherwise have. We have hosted large community tours and educational programs to help connect our urban neighbors with agriculture, offering a firsthand look at how food is raised and creating space for meaningful conversations with a farmer.
Both my husband and I had parents and grandparents who grew up on farms and recall hearing stories of life on the farm. We both had educational backgrounds in natural resources and conservation and had a desire to raise our kids with a strong connection to the environment. We dreamed about having a farm. In our first year of marriage, when my husband was a park ranger, he found a bucket of chicks on the side of the road. He brought them home and we raised them. Those three turned into 12, then 20 and then 100. (That’s called chicken math!) It escalated very quickly to lambs, goats, bunnies and bees, and the Preston Family Farm was born.
The Winchester Farm Exchange is a year-round, brick-and-mortar farm market built on a simple but powerful idea: put farmers first, paying them fairly for their products while improving the health outcomes of our community. We do that by providing access to the highest-quality, nutrient-dense local foods, grown and produced right where we live.
The market began very humbly. It started with selling what we grew on our own farm to friends and neighbors, first from a cooler on our front porch. That grew into a cabinet on our driveway with an outdoor refrigerator. During the stay-at-home days of COVID-19, our little farm stand drew a lot of attention, and demand grew quickly. We expanded to a 10-by-10 shed, added a full freezer and refrigerator, and invited friends to sell their meat and baked goods alongside ours. The response from the community was overwhelming, and the farm stand and our farm became a popular gathering place.
My friend Chelsie Casagrande Smith shared how difficult it was for her, with two small kids, to shop at multiple small farms scattered across the area, although she greatly wanted access to better foods. She shared a vision to take what we had created and expand it from a shed into a historic bank building, with 4,000 square feet dedicated to local food. She had a financial plan and asked if I could bring the agricultural knowledge, farmer relationships and operational experience.
Six months later we opened the doors of the Winchester Farm Exchange Market, creating a centralized space where farmers are strongly supported and the community has consistent access to local, nourishing food. We have been met with overwhelming positive response.
While Chelsie and I are co-owners of the Winchester Farm Exchange, we do not currently derive any profit from the market—though we hope that day will come. Our priority has always been to put farmers and the community first. To stay true to that mission, we both maintain full-time jobs outside of the market to make ends meet. I work as a fundraiser for agricultural programs at a local university and Chelsie owns and runs several other thriving businesses.
My daughter Lauren, who is market manager, and I have both actively served on our county Farm Bureau boards with the Ohio Farm Bureau. We believe strongly in serving at the grassroots level and view agricultural advocacy as an essential part of supporting farmers, strengthening our local food system and investing in the future of agriculture.
[I] believe strongly in serving at the grassroots level and view agricultural advocacy as an essential part of supporting farmers.
I also co-founded Fishes & Loaves Food Alliance, the mission of which is to nourish both minds and bodies by increasing access to nutritious food, agricultural education and safe, supportive community spaces, especially for those most vulnerable in our community. As the market came to life, it became clear that God wasn’t just calling us to build a local food business, he was calling us to bring that broader mission to life as well. While the Winchester Farm Exchange serves as the for-profit arm, the Fishes & Loaves Food Alliance was founded as the nonprofit expression of that calling.
We aim to provide outreach, education and food access in three key ways. First, we’re launching agricultural education in the classroom. In partnership with our local school district, we will pilot hands-on learning with second graders. A local church generously gifted us funds to purchase a hydroponic garden for classroom use, allowing students to experience food production firsthand, with a sprinkling of healthy habits messaging.
Second, we plan to fundraise in order to offer a one-to-one match for neighbors who rely on food assistance, helping their dollars go further and making fresh, local food more accessible in our market. We also hope to provide gift cards for our fresh café with the quick-service window, offering families a healthy alternative to fast food. Finally, we hope to open a local community garden that will grow additional produce to gift directly to school district families in need.
I honestly can’t imagine any work I’d rather be doing. Being a farmer, working alongside other farmers, supporting our community and feeding our neighbors is deeply meaningful to me. This work requires sacrifice, grit and a great deal of hard work, but it is also where I feel most alive and most aligned with my purpose.
I find my closest connection to God when I’m outside, working the land, caring for animals and serving others. I started my career as a first responder working in law enforcement before transitioning to the many jobs I now hold, and it’s in those moments of service to others where work and community allow me to live out my faith through my vocation.
Being Lutheran has always given me the foundation to connect my work, my family and my service to a larger purpose, and the church family inspires me in ways that daily help me keep my eyes on Jesus and the purpose for my life that he has revealed to me. Being Lutheran and hearing our liturgy is one of the safest, most peaceful and most familiar experiences for me.
I’m a Lutheran because my faith calls me to serve in tangible ways through caring for creation, serving my neighbors and building community. Being a farmer has shown me daily how God provides for and sustains us. And being part of a church community reminds me that faith is not just personal but shared with others, and that brings me peace.
