Join the Zen Peacemakers Resident Program in Socially Engaged Buddhism.
Montague Farm Zen House
Service with Dignity, Service with Love
General Description
Current Activities
Mission & Goals
1-Year Vision
5-Year Vision
Karen Kisui Werner
In April, 2009, the Zen Peacemakers’ Board of Directors decided to open a signature Zen House at our Montague location, to be directed by Karen Kisui Werner. The Montague Farm Zen House (MFZH) uses facilities on the Montague campus, including residence space in the farmhouse, the meditation hall and the House of One People.
To read the latest news about the Monague Farm Zen House please read our Newsletter.
The MFZH is creating social service projects in the Pioneer Valley and serving as a model for other Zen Houses
Montague Campus
Daily life in the MFZH includes Zen practice and service in the projects sponsored by the house.
Services are delivered from a holistic, dignity-based perspective. MFZH will offer training that provides the skills and tools necessary to empower people to hold market-wage jobs and move toward economic self-sufficiency. MFZH also networks with existing service agencies.
MFZH serves three goals: to train residential and community based Buddhist practitioners and interns in the theory and skills essential to practice socially engaged Buddhism; to provide new and varied models for this practice; and to help alleviate suffering in the world by developing and running social service projects in areas of need. MFZH is community based and does not seek to proselytize or convert, but to serve beleaguered people of any race, religion, orientation and gender where they live, work and struggle daily.
We deeply appreciate the previous and current support of
Businesses: Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Big Y, Brooks Bend Farm, Cynthia Roderick Photography, Diemand Farm, Enterprise Farm, Green Fields Market, Greenfield Farmers Cooperative Exchange, Greyston Bakery, Pierce Bros. Coffee, Richard Smith, Inc., Smiarowski Farm, Staples, Stonyfield Yogurt, Stop and Shop, Target, UMass-Amherst, Walmart, Whole Foods Market
Individual Major Donors (over $25,000): Chuck Blitz, Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi, Hydar Friedrich, Bernie Glassman, William Greenberg, Sheila Hixon, Robert Lee, Josh Mailman, Eve Marko, Mark Mininberg, Kathryn Pon, Geoff Taylor
and the many individuals who have donated time, money and supplies.
Meals
Garden
Enterprise
Organizing
Interfaith Offerings
Community meals are at the heart of the Montague Farm Zen House –at our meals, we provide nutritional homemade dishes and build a sense of community, feeding body and spirit. We currently have two meal sites:
Lunch line at Montague Farm Café MFZH Model Soup Kitchen
Site 1: On April 2010, The Montague Farm Zen House launched a unique family-oriented soup kitchen at the Zen Peacemakers campus in Montague. We are calling this the Montague Farm Café. You can see a slide show of our Montague Farm Café launch in the left corner of this webpage.
The Montague Farm Café fills a gap in the free community meals offered in our surrounding towns (where a staggering 30% of families experience food insecurity and 18% experience hunger) and offers a wonderful and safe place for kids to play. We do outreach with the family shelters and community meals in the area, as well as the Department of Transitional Assistance, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and youth who have been in the foster care system. We offer free transportation. We also reach out to neighbors and friends and create a festive gathering.
Our Montague Farm Cafés happen every Saturday 12-3pm. So many things make this community meal special -including kid-friendly activities like make-n-take puppetry projects, musical performances, hiking, kite-making, and improv games.
We are very excited about establishing a health and wellness component to this meal, which we launched on June 19th, 2010. We are providing meal attendees with free access to acupuncture, mindfulness-based stress reduction and relapse prevention coaching in Spanish and English, pastoral counseling, chair massage, nutritional counseling (including resources from the public health program Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC), a dental hygienist, and a physician. We plan to introduce a regular Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting, as well, in conjunction with a local organization, the Recovery Project. Our health and wellness program is directed by John Kealy, M.D.
We have 5 distinct tasks to make it easy for people to be involved in a way that works for them. The tasks are:
1. Donating money and/or farm-garden harvest (also helping to coordinate donations from bizes.)
2. Preparing food (main dishes, side dishes, bread, dessert, drink)
3. Serving the meal/ cleaning up
4. Wellness/ creative offerings for adults and for kids
5. Providing transportation for families to the meal/ from the meal
We know wikis are not for everyone, so you can also get more info or let us know how you’d like to be involved by contacting Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or calling 413-367-5275.
Dinner Line in Orange
Site 2: We provide monthly meals in Orange, MA, as part of the Franklin County Meal program. The meal is served at Bethany Lutheran Church, 62 Cheney St in Orange, and about 60-75 people attend each meal. We have also started to include an optional meditation circle, including meditation instruction, before the meal –this has been very moving to be part of.
For the Orange meal, we have a similar list of distinct tasks, so that people can participate in a way that works for them.
If you would like to be involved in helping with the Orange meal (our meals are the third Thursday of the month), please visit our Orange Wiki and sign up for a specific task or tasks.
If you are not able to access the wiki, you can get more info about the Orange meal and let us know how you’d like to be involved by contacting Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or calling 413-367-5275.
Deerfield Academy's boys lacrosse team helping set the garden fence posts.
On Earth Day April 2010, we broke ground on a 1/4 acre garden at the Montague Farm, where we are growing organic vegetables for our community meals. This garden has emerged from the contributions of many people: Karen Idoine, Ike Eichenlaub, Laurie Smith, Tim Raines, Doug Donnell, Janice Frey, Bonnie Bloom, Dan Smith, Charlie Kerrigan, Henry Marshall, Kanji Ruhl, and the Greenfield Farmers Co-operative Exchange. The fabulous Big Brothers/Big Sisters crew (Ashley, Brooke, and Rachel) and the Deerfield Academy lacrosse team and their coach Jan Flaska have been instrumental.
çWe are excited to have Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Franklin County be part of this garden -some of their "big and little" volunteers will be tending to "plant a row for the hungry" plots, a project organized by the Franklin County Hunger Task Force. The rest of the veggies will be used directly for our free Saturday meals on site. We'll also have seed planting and gardening instruction during our community meals, so that kids and families can be involved in the wonders of growing organic food.
A plot of grass transformed into the Montague Farm Zen House garden
Tim Raines on the first round with the rototiller in April.
After the Deerfield Academy lacrosse team helped dig a fence trench and set the poles.
Karen Idoine and the chicken wire fence in mid May.
At last, early plantings in June!
As of the first day of summer, Jiko McIntosh is our garden coordinator and can be reached at jiko@zenpeacemakers.com.
Let us know if you'd like to be part of this garden!
We are in the research and development phase of a social enterprise focusing on health and wellness.
Alisa Teaching
We had a wonderful weekend training in community organizing with Alisa Glassman, Lead Organizer for Action in Montgomery (AIM), on Dec 12-13, 2009. The 12 attendees
are planning to meet again in late January, 2010, to continue honing our community organizing skills and to see about developing an alliance for Montague and/or Franklin County organizing.
Our approach to community organizing is grounded in the IAF-Alinsky model and embodies the spirit of not knowing that is at the heart of Zen Peacemakers work. Our first step in community organizing is listening: holding one-on-one meetings with people and hearing what they feel deeply about and what they want to change in their communities. Our intention is to help build the collective power needed to actualize community-defined goals.
Anyone interested in learning more about the community organizing work of MFZH can contact Karen@zenpeacemakers.com or call 413-367-5275.
In addition to zen practice, kirtan, and zikr offerings at the Montague Farm campus, as of January 2010, we are adding a weekly meditation/ counsel circle in Turners Falls, MA, location still to be determined.
Due to interest, we have also started a meditation circle before the monthly meal in Orange.
We also currently organize a weekly Wednesday Meditation Circle at the Hampshire County Outreach and Drop-in in Northampton.
A report from Geoff Bogai Taylor, member of the MFZH and Montague Farm Sangha, who organizes the Northampton meditation circle:
Every Wednesday afternoon at the Hampshire County Outreach and Drop-in a meditation circle is being offered to all. Claudia Yakushin Phillips, a member of the Montague Farm Zendo, is nurse practitioner at the Drop-in. Visitors at the Drop-in asked Claudia about instruction in meditation — which people increasingly see as a part of a healthy lifestyle. Claudia suggested that the Montague Farm Zen House, as part of its community service practice, could respond to this request.
So now every Wednesday at 3:00 pm since late October, 2009, we have been gathering at the Northampton Drop-in, for one hour of talking about (and doing) meditation. The Drop-in closes temporarily at 3:00 (except for meditators) so we have the main space to ourselves for the hour. So far, it has been a small group, where we have taken time to hear from each participant why they are interested in meditation. Usually we take fifteen or twenty minutes of meditation, followed by a Council - where we can briefly share our experience.
The circle is convened by Geoff Bogai Taylor and friends on behalf of Montague Farm Zen House. Anyone is welcome, but it's smart to arrive 15 minutes early if you've never been to the Drop-in. The idea is make a space for all kinds of people to explore meditation, and to support anyone who wants to develop, maintain, or improve their meditation practice.
The location is central: 43 Center Street - near the Iron Horse and the Police station. Please join us on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 for a meditation boost.
Service with Dignity, Service with Love. We also serve as a training site for people who want to work in or create zen houses internationally.
Goals in Support of Our Mission
-Create a business and job training/ support to employ people who have been left out of the mainstream market economy;
-Collaborate with community members, local organizations, and interfaith groups on community organizing -building the collective power needed to actualize community-defined goals;
-Provide regular homemade community meals for people who experience food insecurity;
-Make interfaith offerings (particularly meditation/counsel practices as well as kirtan and zikr) available to the community at the Montague Farm campus and various other sites in Franklin County;
-Have clearly defined volunteer and training opportunities in support of these goals.
-We will research and develop business plan, do feasibility studies, seek out target workforce and assess how to help them thrive in this workplace, identify and connect with possible funders and investors.
-We will organize monthly meals at Orange, part of the Franklin County Meals Program, and expand to include an optional meditation session. All of this will be supported by a wide volunteer network.
-We will launch an ongoing community meal at the Montague Farm -a family-friendly afternoon event with healthy food, creative activities, and a welcoming atmosphere. This will include an expansive health and wellness component.
-We will provide weekly meditation/ counsel in the Northampton cot shelter and in Turners Falls at the Brick House Community Resource Center.
-We will establish multiple funding sources.
-We will establish a clear web presence as well as a clear internal and external communication and governance process within MFZH.
Montague Campus
-We will oversee a business on site that employs 15-30 people in FT/PT capacities in dignified work, with a focus on employing people who have been previously left out of the mainstream market economy. Provide supports, including transportation, necessary training, and other assistance, to help the workforce thrive.
The MFZH will have a number of exciting and creative collaborations and partnerships with local agencies and schools.
-The MFZH will include a lively cross-class community of farmhouse residents (seminary, interns, and others), local volunteer-collaborators, maintaining a healthy, democratic live-in community.
-The MFZH will have a clear system for integrating seminarians, interns, volunteer collaborators and partner organizations to achieve MFZH stated goals
-The MFZH and ZP seminary program will be connected to a degree granting institution so that people can work towards BA or MA degrees while living in the MFZH.
-We will have a working farm on the Montague Farm property, generating produce for community meals and other MFZH events and to bring community members to the land for CSA pick-up, weaving our site into the heart of our neighboring towns. The CSA will help subsidize the produce grown for community meals –and CSA members will be informed of MFZH food outreach activities, inspired by Food bank Farm model.
-We will have a well-organized process for serving community meals on site and elsewhere in Franklin County, feeding those experiencing hunger/food insecurity and building cross-class community.
-We will have weekly meditation/counsel offerings, intended to make these practices accessible to people experiencing stresses of poverty. Through these efforts, we will grow a cross-class community of practitioners.
-We will have spokespeople sharing this model of socially engaged Buddhism and social ministry in relevant contexts
-The MFZH will have a clear system of governance that is transparent and as democratic as possible.
-The MFZH will have secure funding sources for all operations and staff.
-The MFZH will have a monthly column in the Montague Reporter (also shared on MFZH webpage with international readership), reflecting on the various projects of MFZH and clarifying ways for people to be involved.