Part of FarmerJawn lost its nonprofit status. Founder Christa Barfield says the organization’s charitable work continues.

The driving force behind the burgeoning Philly-area agriculture operation FarmerJawn, Christa Barfield is used to the spotlight, in ways good and bad.

Her work to provide affordable, organic produce as well as education and training to underserved communities and budding food entrepreneurs was highlighted last June by the James Beard Foundation, which presented her with an Emerging Leadership award. Two months later, Barfield and FarmerJawn’s crew discovered a swastika spray-painted on the floor of their Chester County barn — the second instance of racist and antisemitic graffiti at the 123-acre farm she leases from the Westtown School.

Now, Barfield 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 Axios report also surfaced $6,300 in unpaid sales and use taxes that one of Barfield’s businesses, Life Leaf Organic Farms, owes to the state.

Barfield confirmed the timing of the cease-and-desist letter, as well as the back taxes, in an interview with The Inquirer on Tuesday. 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.)

Barfield stressed that the change has not affected FarmerJawn’s charitable work, including two recent events where Barfield and company gave out thousands of eggs (and lamb) to New Yorkers and Philadelphians, as well as a free day-of-service community event in Germantown on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

She also noted that FarmerJawn offers free land, as well as commissary kitchen space, to those interested in learning about farming or food, fulfilling its mission to provide no-cost education to young, women, and Black farmers. “We have a kitchen [in West Chester] that we’ve been allowing food businesses to use since last year, and we’re building [a kitchen] in our Kensington store, CornerJawn, for the very same purpose. So we’re community-oriented every way you look at it, and no one can ever doubt that.”

The lack of official nonprofit status amounts to a technicality, Barfield said. “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 said. “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.”

The FarmerJawn & Friends Foundation Fund website does say the organization is a nonprofit, and there is an active page on the FarmerJawn site that accepts donations, without any mention of a fiscal sponsor. “That link doesn’t get used,” Barfield said. “We don’t proliferate it or push it out anywhere.” Website maintenance is forthcoming, she said. “So many things on our website need upkeep, and that definitely is one of them.”

As for the $6,300 lien, which the state filed earlier this month, Barfield said it was another agenda item to be handled and that she recently hired a chief financial officer to help steer her for-profit company, FarmerJawn Foods LLC.

“That’s something that will definitely get taken care of,” she said, “It’s not particularly easy to be able to track all of these things, especially if you’re doing it as a small business, and especially paying the wages that we pay.” She said that FarmerJawn’s nine full-time employees make between $50,000 and $80,000; its eight or so seasonal employees earn $20 an hour or more; and its interns earn $500 a month.

Barfield has dealt with other financial issues. In 2022, Weinstein Properties sought to evict her company, Life Leaf Organic Farms, from a property at 6730 Germantown Avenue over nearly $20,000 in back rent. The company was later awarded a judgment against Life Leaf amounting to $25,760. Northwest Philly developer and Weinstein Properties president Ken Weinstein said the situation was resolved and that Barfield moved out of the 6730 Germantown Avenue space several months ago to concentrate her efforts in Westtown.

“I consider her a force of nature in terms of mobilizing people and seeking volunteers and creating projects,” Weinstein said.

Private creditors have also taken Barfield to court over debt. PDM Capital, a small business lender, secured an $11,500 judgement against FarmerJawn Foods last February. Barfield said that her new CFO has already been in touch with PDM Capital. (A representative of PDM Capital said that it has not been in contact with FarmerJawn’s CFO. Emails reviewed by The Inquirer indicate that FarmerJawn has repeatedly attempted to settle the payment with a law firm retained by PDM.)

“We’re actively addressing it,” she said. “Farms often face funding gaps at the end of the season — especially small, undercapitalized ones like ours. It’s worth noting that far larger organizations with far more resources also experience financial challenges.”

Barfield’s not yet sure if FarmerJawn & Friends will act to re-establish its nonprofit status. “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.”

Barfield anticipates that FarmerJawn Foods, the for-profit arm, will transition to certified B Corp, a designation earned by socially responsible for-profit companies that undergo a rigorous evaluation process, later this year.

One thing that would tip the scales in the direction of pursuing nonprofit status again: the $657,000 Community Project Funding grant FarmerJawn & Friends was awarded last year by the federal government to restore the aging dairy barn FarmerJawn Foods operates out of on the grounds of the Westtown School.

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, who represents Chester County, helped secure the 2024 grant (along with grants for 13 other projects from Reading to Berwyn). According to Errin Cecil-Smith, communications director for Houlahan’s office, the application for grants — for which for-profit organizations were ineligible — were submitted in 2023, when FarmerJawn & Friends’ nonprofit status was still in good standing.

Houlahan’s office also said that the grants, which were included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024, are administered and overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development once they’re signed into law. “My understanding of the process is once our office makes the recommendation for a project and the appropriation vote is taken, the organization then effectively reapplies for funding,” Cecil-Smith said in an email.

In any event, Barfield said FarmerJawn hasn’t received any of the grant funds. “If the 501c3 status is a requirement for that, then we’ll get it back,” she said. “Our CFO has been researching requirements for those funds so we can see if possible to access this year.”

While FarmerJawn’s CFO has a lot on their plate, so, too, does Barfield and the rest of the team. FarmerJawn Foods’ CSA program — with pickup sites in West Chester, Elkins Park, and Kensington — is booting up for the season; this year, they’re harvesting 30 acres at the Westtown farm as well as an acre at the Elkins Estate. (The West Chester farm is slated to complete its regenerative organic certification this September.) They’re also finishing work on CornerJawn, tentatively opening this summer. And the West Chester store at 1225 E. Street Rd. opens six days a week starting April 15. FarmerJawn plans to run free weekend bus trips from Philly to West Chester in April to October to get people out to the farm.

Barfield said she looks forward to sending a basket of organic produce to the Axios office. The 37-year-old Germantown native and mother of two is undeterred by the hurdles presented by her rapidly growing agricultural enterprise.

“I’ve been homeless so I can have dollars for my staff and commercial spaces in the last few years for FarmerJawn to succeed,” Barfield said. “I didn’t come this far for these small hiccups to stop me.”

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.

This story was updated to include a statement from PDM Capital that was received after publication, and FarmerJawn’s response.