‘Angel benefactor’ saves Daufuskie Community Farm with $200,000 anonymous gift

After seven months of silence, little chirps and quacks will fill the air at the Daufuskie Community Farm

In November of last year an avian flu outbreak at the nonprofit farm on Daufuskie Island required that the farm’s flock of birds be euthanized. The birds were mostly chickens with some ducks, geese and guinea fowl mixed in.

Without any birds and the farm under quarantine until March, farm staff worried about how they would pay off their mortgage and feared the worst for the farm.

“We thought we were gonna lose it because we had no tours - we had no income,” said Pat Beichler, the former general manager at the farm. “We couldn’t ask people to put money on a dead horse.”

The nonprofit farm is run entirely by volunteers. The farm makes money from tours and selling memberships where goods like eggs and goat cheese are split between the members.

But, the farm was saved at the last minute last week when what Beichler described as an “angel benefactor,” anonymously donated the money needed to pay off the farm’s mortgage.

For 10 years, until 2021, the farm rented the land it sat on for $1 a year. The farm was able to buy the land for the sum of $236,000. Until recently they only had about $40,000 of it paid off. Their anonymous donor paid for the remaining $195,000.

“It’s incredible that somebody donated that, that somebody is that invested in the farm and the community,” said Anna Holland, the farm’s new general manager.

For the first time since losing the flock, the farm is again brimming with life. Visitors can see baby chickens numbering into the 50s, baby geese and baby ducks.

“It really is like the Phoenix rising from the ashes,” said Beichler.

Farm staff expects to have eggs and goat for their members by next month. About 10 hens, who Beichler partially raised in her bathroom since they weren’t allowed on the farm, just started laying eggs.

“That was the hardest part through quarantine, the silence of the farm,” said Holland, “A farm shouldn’t be silent.”

Despite it, Holland is excited to take the farm to the next level, she said.

To celebrate the farm’s reopening, they’ll host a grand revival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. The event is free and open to the public and will include a chili cook off, goat race and a display detailing the evolution of the farm since 2012

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This story was originally published May 11, 2023 at 11:15 AM.