FarmerJawn Secures $1.3M from Black Farmer Fund and Potlikker Capital to Expand Largest Black Woman-Owned Farm in PA

Combined loan and philanthropic investment advances a collaborative financing model to strengthen regional food systems.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, July 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Black Farmer Fund (BFF) and Potlikker Capital, Inc. (Potlikker) today announced a combined $1.3 million investment in FarmerJawn Agriculture, Pennsylvania’s largest Black woman-owned regenerative organic produce farm. The investment aims to accelerate FarmerJawn’s expansion while advancing a collaborative financing model designed to strengthen regional food systems, expand agricultural ownership, and increase access to healthy food in historically underserved communities.

This collaboration reflects growing momentum behind innovative financing models that combine flexible debt, philanthropic capital, and technical assistance to help historically undercapitalized agricultural entrepreneurs scale businesses that generate lasting economic and community impact. By providing the underserved communities of urban Pennsylvania with the opportunity to grow and consume their own organic food, FarmerJawn is disrupting the disconnection that has long defined our food system.

As communities across the country confront growing challenges related to food access, agricultural ownership, climate resilience, and supply chain instability, investments in regional agriculture have become increasingly critical. Through this collaboration, FarmerJawn, BFF, and Potlikker are helping strengthen more resilient local food systems while expanding economic opportunity in historically underserved communities.

“We are so excited to partner with FarmerJawn and Potlikker Capital on addressing Food Apartheid and ecological well-being in the Philadelphia area. Through investing investment capital, philanthropic capital, and technical assistance in the Black Food System, we will continue to address some of this world’s most complex problems.” – Olivia Watkins, President and Co-Founder, Black Farmer Fund.

“FarmerJawn represents exactly the kind of bold, community-centered leadership we exist to support. Traditional financing is often transactional. At Potlikker, we invest differently. We work alongside visionary social entrepreneurs, helping them build the relationships, networks, and infrastructure needed to create lasting community transformation. Our goal is not simply to help organizations achieve economic success, but to ensure the communities they serve have the opportunity to thrive alongside them." – Mark Watson, CEO, Potlikker Capital

“This investment is about more than FarmerJawn. It’s about demonstrating what’s possible when mission-aligned partners choose to invest in Black farmers and the future of our food system. For too long, many of us have had the vision, but not the access to the capital needed to bring that vision to life. This collaboration represents a different model, one built on trust, shared values, and a long-term commitment to creating opportunity, ownership, and resilience in agriculture. At FarmerJawn, we always say, ‘Agriculture is the culture.’ It belongs to everyone who eats. So let this be your reminder: Agriculture is your culture.” – Christa Barfield, Founder and Farmer, FarmerJawn

About FarmerJawn
This completes phase one of FarmerJawn’s broader $1.5 million growth campaign, designed to expand regenerative agriculture throughout the Philadelphia region. Potlikker Capital and Black Farmer Fund are lead investors, providing the first $750,000 of debt capital and $550,000 of gift capital toward the initiative.

FarmerJawn is seeking to raise the remaining debt capital of $750,000 by the end of the 2026 growing season.

Capital Funding will be used to:

- Expand neighborhood retail through the CornerJawn model, with a long-term vision of opening three stores by 2030.
- Increase regenerative farming capacity through strategic infrastructure, equipment, and distribution systems.
- Create year-round, living-wage agricultural careers that strengthen the regional workforce.
- Build a more resilient regional food system by expanding access to healthy food, creating local economic opportunity, and building a scalable model for regenerative agriculture.

Together, the partners are building an enduring ecosystem that demonstrates how regenerative agriculture, community-centered food systems, and values-aligned investment can improve health outcomes, create generational wealth, and strengthen local economies for generations to come.

Click here to learn more about FarmerJawn's mission or to support its continued growth.

About Black Farmer Fund
Black Farmer Fund invests in Black food systems in the Northeast by bringing capital, business support, and community connections to Farmers and Food Business owners. Black Farmer Fund provides patient, non-extractive capital and places decisions about who receives funding in the hands of experienced farmers and food systems entrepreneurs across the state. We aspire to see a thriving, racially just Black agricultural ecosystem that builds generational wealth and expands food education within the Black community.

To learn more about our work, visit our website, blackfarmerfund.org, or follow us on Instagram @blackfarmerfund or LinkedIn.

About Potlikker Capital, Inc.
Potlikker Capital Inc. is a national nonprofit investment organization building the conditions for resilience by aligning capital, relationships, knowledge, and opportunity around historically overlooked agricultural producers, food entrepreneurs, and communities. Guided by a philosophy of repair, partnership, and long-term systems change, Potlikker works alongside the people and places it serves to strengthen resilient regional food systems and expand pathways to shared prosperity. Rather than financing transactions alone, Potlikker invests in the ecosystems that help people, enterprises, and communities thrive. Through its relationship-centered approach to Ecosystem Investing, the organization is helping redefine how capital can strengthen communities, investing not only in businesses but also in the visionaries behind them and the relationships, partnerships, and communities that have always possessed the ingredients for resilience.

Learn more about how Potlikker Capital is building the conditions for resilience at potlikkercapital.com or follow @potlikkercapital on Instagram.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Onyx Ramírez
Senior Communications Manager, Black Farmer Fund
Phone: 347-734-6819
Email: onyx@blackfarmerfund.com

Stephanie Johnson
Chief Public Relations Strategist, Potlikker Capital Inc.
Phone: 847-946-7229
Email: media@potlikkercapital.com

Onyx Ramirez
Black Farmer Fund
3477346819 ext.
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