Our Village Needs $31,000 More to Complete Moab Farm Property Purchase

Thirty-one thousand dollars separates Our Village Community Center from completing an eight-year land puzzle on the west side of Moab. The nonprofit operates a five-acre farm and learning site and has raised the majority of its purchase target; now it needs a final fundraising push to close on the front portion of Farmer Ray Alger's original property on 500 West.

Executive Director Annie Thomas has been building toward this acquisition since 2018, when Our Village bought the back half of the same lot to house its nature-based preschool and other programs. Alger, who had welcomed children to the farm before his death shortly after that sale, left the front parcel separate. Acquiring it would give the nonprofit something it has never had: direct street access on 500 West, along with resolution of an existing utility dispute with a neighboring property owner.

The front house on the parcel is earmarked for Our Village's first Family Support clinical program. Thomas described the planned services as designed "to strengthen family resilience, reduce isolation, and support healthy child development," with offerings that include parenting education, parent-child classes, and family mental health and therapy. The site would also become home to Baby and You, a partnership with Promise Partnership Utah providing a $500 child education savings contribution per participating family through the my529 Promise Baby program, set to launch in August.

The stakes extend beyond a single parcel. Our Village distributed more than 33,000 pounds of food in the prior year and runs a range of intergenerational educational and food-security programs across its Moab campus. Road frontage on 500 West means families, including those employed seasonally in the outdoor recreation economy, can reach the site directly rather than through adjacent property.

Contributions can be made online through the organization's Zeffy crowdfunding page or by mailing a check to Our Village's Moab address. The $31,000 gap is the only thing standing between the campaign and a closed deal.