Founders: Eliza & Jason Factor
Eliza is a novelist and memoirist with a special affection for trees, goats and herbs, including those that arise unbidden and are often considered weeds. In 2010, she founded Extreme Kids & Crew, a successful NYC non profit that connects families raising kids with disabilities through the arts, play and conversation. For more information on her books and projects, go to: elizafactor.net
Jason is a lawyer, business advisor, father of three, finder of things, chopper of wood and slayer of poison ivy and multiflora rose.
Felix Factor, the motivating force behind Lonely Worm Farm.
A Very Brief History
As families across the United States know, once children with intellectual and/or physical disabilities age out of school, the programs that have sustained them end. Parents call this transition to adulthood “the cliff.” Their children are thrown into a world in which 70-80% of adults with disabilities are unemployed; isolation, depression and poverty are common; and opportunities to make friends and develop talents and skills are few.
Believing that farms and small family businesses can help reverse this problem, Eliza and Jason Factor established Lonely Worm Farm in 2021. They envision a farm and arts operation that will offer a range of inclusive employment opportunities, as well as serve as a destination for folks looking for a wheel chair accessible orchard, a drop in weaving workshop, or simply the chance to pet a goat and connect with nature.
In partnership with The Arc Greater Hudson Valley, Lonely Worm Farm’s weekly volunteer program began in 2022 and has been going strong ever since. By 2026, the farm hopes to add paid and profit sharing positions as well.
In 2023, Lonely Worm Farm Arts and Agriculture Programming, Inc was granted 501c3 status. EIN: 88-0838737
Land Tender: Jess Cherry
Jess grows vegetables, fruits, flowers, seeds, tends animals and insects, cultivates healthy soil, and re-members natural patterns in land in this Munsee Lenape bioregion. While tending the land, Jess integrates mindfulness and awareness practices with various healing modalities including earthbody connection and dreamwork. Jess has facilitated nature explorations, garden counseling, expressive arts sessions, guided meditation and dream tending for groups and individuals.
Art Program Director: Jory Cherry
Jory is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, and ceramicist. They use clay, mixed media arts, video, and performance to understand cosmological models of form. They are curious about how time affects our knowledge of shape. Jory throws and hand builds sculptures to study how physical forces of attraction inhibit, inform, or transcend form. At the forefront of their practice is play, exploration, and connection to material. As a queer and neurodiverse maker, they approach teaching by facilitating an inclusive and collaborative learning environment. Their favorite way to initiate a creative space is by playing drawing games to expand our ideas of what a drawing is, and to experience our connection points of consciousness as another extension of drawing.
Our Visitors & Volunteers
From our start in the midst of the pandemic, hundreds of people have visited and thousands of volunteer hours have been logged cleaning the barn, raising the yurt, harvesting vegetables, saving seeds, feeding goats, collecting eggs, weaving welcome mats, drying herbs, working clay, shaking tinctures, building planters, and much more. It is the enthusiasm of our volunteers and visitors that lets us know we are on the right track. Thanks people. Keep coming!
