Kilimo Minnesota: Farm and Empower
Kilimo Minnesota is an organic incubator farm with a mission to empower emerging farmers of African descent, socially and economically through mentorship, farmland access navigation, education, and community building.
Founded in 2020 by Moses and Lonah Momanyi, owners of Dawn2 Dusk Farm, Kilimo Minnesota offers a three to five year hands-on training program that includes organic vegetable farming experience, group classes, networking and one-on-one business mentoring. The program, founded by and for farmers of African descent, is uniquely situated to give emerging farmers an opportunity to learn growing techniques and business skills in a new climate, country and culture while in a comfortable peer setting.
Our Story
We see acres, people working the land from all backgrounds, all seeking to connect with land and fulfill their lives. New farmers have brought with them the knowledge of their cultures as well as a hunger to learn about the local cultures as they related to land before and now as well as the new farming techniques and lifestyle in the new land. They are intent on creating a resilient food culture in a sustainable environment that honors the land.
Founders, Moses and Lonah are making these visions a reality through Kilimo Minnesota. They both grew up in farming communities in Kenya. Moses remembers waking each morning to take care of the animals. Lonah recalls starting her days at 5 a.m. and working in the fields for seven or eight hours that included picking tea. Both were given an opportunity to come to the United States through an immigration lottery system, and as young adults they found themselves in Minnesota, where they met at Big River Farms, a nonprofit training program for immigrant and other emerging farmers.
As a newly arrived immigrant, Moses observed that a common path for newcomers was to settle in communities where other countrymen had settled and to take jobs that others before them had taken, often in urban centers. In this, Moses and Lonah saw a risk of losing their connection with the land and, consequently, their cultural roots. They decided to stick with farming.
Life was not easy. They toiled hard, worked extra off-farm jobs after long days in the fields and still struggled to make ends meet. And to top it all off, there were northern winters to adapt to! Friends helped when they could, and through it all, they saw challenges and opportunities but never thought of quitting.
After years of learning American farming methods and absorbing American culture, Moses and Lonah were able to secure a loan to buy twenty acres of land in 2015. The farm, aptly named Dawn2Dusk Farm, is in Cambridge, Minnesota in Isanti County, about fifty miles north of Minneapolis. The certified-organic farm is now well established. Moses and Lonah sell at multiple farmers markets and wholesale accounts in the Twin Cities.
While their feet are firmly planted in the soil at Dawn2Dusk, Moses and Lonah have an eye on the future. They now mentor more than 40 other immigrant farmers through Kilimo Minnesota, their own incubator farm program founded in 2020. In 2022, the Kilimo was collaborating with other farms namely; Philadelphia Community Farm, Live Organically , Sharing Our Roots and others rented farms across the Twin Cities.
At Kilimo Minnesota, farmers are building on the proud history of Minnesota agriculture, drawing on and preserving traditions from their countries of origin and ensuring that their children – and generations to come – will treasure and stay connected to the land that supports us all – Moses
