From Corporate Strategy to Food Equity

Hester van der Werff’s journey into agriculture didn’t begin with a grand political declaration; it started quietly in her own backyard.

For years, gardening was simply a sanctuary, a grounding hobby she balanced alongside a demanding corporate management job in the Netherlands. The turning point came when Hester began looking past her own garden fence and into her surrounding neighborhood.

She noticed a growing disconnect in the local food system: families living near or below the poverty line were increasingly forced to rely on cheap, highly processed alternatives simply because fresh, nourishing food was out of financial reach.

"If we were sitting together with a cup of tea or coffee, I’d tell you that I’ve always been a gardener," Hester reflects. "Over time, I noticed something in my own community. Too many people didn’t have easy access to fresh, healthy vegetables and that didn’t sit right with me. I knew what even a small garden could provide and I wanted to create something that would make a practical difference. Not as a grand vision, but as a simple idea: create a place where people can harvest healthy food, learn basic gardening and cooking skills, and work together."

Hester set out to be of service and learn the ropes of real food production, combining practical observation, online resources, and a structured year of study at the Warmonderhof organic farming school.

In 2022, that learning yielded De Kleine Boerderij ("The Little Farm"), only the second social food garden in the Netherlands. As Hester explains: "A social food garden is a garden that grows food, organic vegetables, fruit, potatoes, and herbs for people that live around the poverty line."

Unlike a traditional commercial farm, a social food garden operates as a community-centered engine for health and connection. Utilizing 100% regenerative methods - such as heavy mulching, composting, no-dig beds, and zero synthetic inputs - the garden restores the soil while growing fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs specifically for local households in need.

For Hester, the work is less about taking a stand against the commercial food industry and more about extending a welcoming table to those around her. "What I am most proud of is what De Kleine Boerderij means for people," she shares softly. "The garden gives families access to fresh, healthy vegetables and it offers something less visible but just as important: a place where people feel useful, welcome, and connected. It’s simple, hands-on work that makes a difference."

The Cross-Sector Framework: Financing Food Justice

Feeding around 200 local families on just one hectare at De Kleine Boerderij takes more than good soil. It takes a fresh approach to funding. Rather than relying on a typical commercial model, Hester built a setup where the whole community helps carry the cost.

A key piece of this is a "two-for-one" Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) system, where local members buy two shares of the harvest: one for their own kitchen and one to sponsor a family who couldn't otherwise afford it. To cover the rest, Hester brought together local businesses, healthcare organizations, and government support to each fund a third of the farm's operations.

"We chose this approach because we believe that food insecurity and community wellbeing are shared responsibilities," Hester explains. "No single sector can solve them alone, they require a collective response."

For Hester, involving health insurance agencies and local businesses is common sense. When healthcare organizations invest in fresh food, they are investing in preventative health and when local businesses contribute, they are supporting their own neighbors. By bringing these different worlds together around the garden, De Kleine Boerderij creates a stable, shared foundation that allows her to keep putting fresh food on local tables year after year.

This model also creates a thriving social hub. De Kleine Boerderij serves as a welcoming home for around 30 weekly volunteers including folks recovering from burnout, migrants practicing Dutch, and neighbors seeking connection who find routine and purpose in the garden while local school children visit to harvest and cook over open fires.

Healing the Grassland: The 1-Hectare Regenerative Pivot

When Hester took over the 1-hectare plot in Friesland, she inherited a blank canvas of standard pasture grassland used exclusively for animal feed. Though the soil held a decent level of organic matter, it was a biological monoculture, a silent green landscape with zero crop diversity, and no food production.

The physical transformation of De Kleine Boerderij was a, hands-on journey. To convert the pasture she tilled the soil once and then started working no dig as much as possible. Half of the garden is 100% no dig, the other half is rototilled when needed but as little as possible.

To break the monoculture, she quickly introduced a diverse, multi-tiered mix of organic vegetables, fruit, potatoes, and herbs. Today, the once-static grassland has come alive. The soil structure has visibly softened, water retention has skyrocketed, and the garden now hums with a thriving insect and plant population while reliably producing a steady, nutrient-dense harvest for 200 local families.

Cultivating Collective Resilience

What makes Hester’s approach so compelling is how seamlessly it pairs organic market gardening with deep community care. Beyond the steady harvests of fresh produce, the garden’s true yield is felt in the human connections, restored health, and sense of purpose nurtured in its soil. Through her Instagram channel of 78,000 followers, she posts short, practical videos on composting, cooking, and growing, sharing that connection far beyond her own fields. "At this point, we are starting a movement to help other municipalities welcome a social food garden in their region and to help gardeners and farmers in Holland start one of their own," Hester shares.

Through her work with  the foundation, Stichting Sociale Voedseltuinen Nederland (Foundation Social Food Gardens Netherlands), Hester helps guide fellow growers through the practical steps of bringing a social garden to life from navigating local land-use policies and securing diverse funding to setting up volunteer programs.

The Foundations’goal is to take the guesswork out of the process so other small growers can replicate the model, scaling her 1-hectare methodology into a nationwide movement aiming for 30 social food gardens by 2030.

As part of this vision, joining the Top 50 Farmers offers an opportunity to connect with like-minded innovators across the globe. “Through this network, I hope to gain practical support from people who are building resilient, community-driven food and nature initiatives,"she shares. “For me, farming is all about improving access to healthy food through good soil, good methods, and honest gardening."

Written by Top 50 Farmers and Angelo Tarquini