Philanthropist Granger Haugh has donated 34 acres of land to the charitable foundation that runs Beacon Farms, which offers second chances to the recovering addicts who staff the North Side farm.
The Haugh Family Foundation, which owned the land on which the farm is located, at a ceremony on Thursday, 1 Dec., gifted the site in its entirety to the Beacon of Hope Foundation, a Cayman-registered charity which operates the farm.
The farm’s chief operating officer Sandy Urquhart said the donation of the land to the local charity gives the farm long-term stability and “an anchor”, so that it can continue to build on its current success.
“This is a remarkable day because we’re celebrating the gifting of the land from the Haugh family, who are sitting in the front here,” Urquhart said to a gathering that included Haugh, his wife Marjorie and son Scott, as well as farm staff, government officials and supporters of the charity, who sat under a canopy of trees in front of the restored farmhouse on Thursday morning.
Previously, the Beacon of Hope Foundation had been leasing the land on a peppercorn rent from the Haugh Family Foundation. “Everything we have done and built so far is now based on land that we own,” Urquhart said. “It means we have a base from which to start to develop the farm and increase the workforce.”
The farm currently employs 12 people, and there are plans to expand this number to 15 over the next year.
At Beacon Farms, located off Frank Sound Road, workers grow tobacco for the first cigars to be created for commercial sale in Cayman, as well as beets, coconuts, and other fruit and vegetables. There are also composting facilities where green waste, cardboard and other organic waste is turned into fertiliser, as well as a coconut-processing plant.
Urquhart said the Haugh family had “generously supported the farm for five years”, adding, “They actually were the people who created it. They purchased it and instigated everything that has resolved in us actually sitting here today, with a farm.”
Life-changing programme
Urquhart described Beacon Farms as “a life-changing programme that gives hope to some of the most vulnerable in our society, people suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction, and that’s something truly phenomenal – the fact that we have a place where everybody can come and work together and really rejuvenate their spirits.”
Urquhart said the farm, in its five years of operation, has already had a positive impact on the lives of employees, past and present, and “has the potential to help hundreds more transform their lives for the better”.
Granger and Scott Haugh set up the Beacon Farms Foundation in 2017 “to create a safe, sober and supervised working environment for Caymanians in recovery”, Urquhart explained.
The land they bought for this purpose used to belong to the family of the late Speaker of the House Edna Moyle.
The farm’s staff comprises mostly former addicts who had come through the Bridge Foundation’s halfway house in West Bay, which was set up in 2012 by Bud Volinsky.
Beacon Farms works hand in hand with the Bridge Foundation. Volinsky had recognised the need for a structured workplace where participants could learn job skills and earn a living to help them rebuild their lives. For many former Bridge Foundation residents, that workplace is Beacon Farms, where Volinsky lives and of which he is board director.
‘Second step’
Granger Haugh described to the attendees how clients of the Bridge Foundation had helped reclaim the farmland “from jungle” over two years.
He said that back in 2017 he had been working with Volinsky and the Bridge Foundation.
“We realised that when people left Bridge, they were really on their own. They had no support groups for them, so we thought why don’t we look at a plan that we call our ‘second step’, where you would take someone from the Bridge Foundation, and give them work, give them a place to stay if they wanted to live there. It would be a safe environment, surrounded by a support group that is already in place by the other members of working community that is already in place here at the Beacon of Hope Foundation.”
He described how he and Volinsky had picked out the site, and the Haughs bought it.
“It worked out really wonderfully for us, but we couldn’t have done it by ourselves,” he said. “It takes a really large community of interested people, and the workers on the ground do a wonderful job. We’re really pleased we can give them a work environment.”
He said helping Caymanians rebuild their lives after substance abuse is his family’s way of giving back to the Cayman community where they have had a home for more than 40 years.
Haugh, who established the Haugh Foundation after selling his medical diagnostics company Cliniqa Corporation, added, “Beacon Farms not only provides jobs and training, but it’s also making impressive advances in agriculture. We are extremely proud of all the farm has achieved in its first five years and look forward to seeing what the next chapter brings.”
‘Chance to rebuild lives’
Governor Martyn Roper, who is patron of the Beacon Farms Foundation, has been a supporter of the initiative throughout his four years on island.
“I think this project really is outstanding,” he said. “It is phenomenal and incredible to help people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction in Cayman, and that has a positive effect on them. I’ve spoken to many of them, and the enthusiasm and positivity that you get when you have those discussions is really heartwarming to see. It also has a big impact on people, on friends, on family, and it’s of great benefit to our wider community.
“The jobs that Beacon Farms provides in the agricultural industry for those in recovery, it also gives them an incredibly important chance to rebuild their lives and to really try to become productive members in our society. They are taught new skills, they get a pay cheque at the end of hard month’s work and that gives them dignity and it gives them self confidence.”
He added, “I want to thank Granger Haugh and his family for their incredibly generous support to this initiative and to our islands.”
Future fundraising
Urquhart said, after five years of financial support from the Haugh Foundation, the farm is now aiming to become self-sustaining, and will have to survive on its own income as well as gifting from community donations.
To help bridge the gap while funding from the Haugh Foundation is scaled back and farming operations are scaled up, Beacon Farms has launched a fundraising campaign to ensure jobs are not put at risk in the interim.
“Beacon Farms has a valuable role to play, helping people get back onto their feet as productive and responsible members of society. We all have a duty of care towards those who need our help, and we hope our Caymankind community will provide some financial assistance until the point Beacon Farms can fund itself,” Urquhart said.
For more information or to find out how to make a donation to Beacon Farms, visit
www.beaconfarmscayman.org.
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