Down Farm ON THE
Former NBA player works to connect kids with the land
by Tracy Ouellette STAFF WRITER
arcus Landry, former Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers player, who retired from the NBA last year, is hard at work down on the farm – in East Troy. The newly formed Beulah Family Homestead Farm officially opened in December. “I decided to retire from the NBA eight months ago and I was always interested in farming and the land and animals and different things like that,” Landry said. “I knew this is what I wanted to do.” Landry said he’s been involved with agriculture for several years, teaching people about the land and working to provide fresh food for those in need in the inner city. “I even ended up starting a food pantry in 2019 at my local church on the south side of Milwaukee,” he said. His move to create the Beulah Family Homestead just seemed like a natural progression of his work to bring awareness of farming, especially to the inner city kids and adults who may not have had a chance to experience life on a farm. “I feel like farming has become sort of a lost art,” Landry said. “It needs to come back. The main thing I feel like a lot of kids feel the only opportunity, especially in the inner city, is to dribble a basketball. There’s so much more out there than that! “I want to give them the opportunity to see someone like myself, who has played in the NBA for 12 years, that there’s so much more out there.” According to a news release, the Beulah Family Homestead was established to help revitalize the community by integrating agriculture and sports; with the vision of cultivating stronger relationships through planting (agriculture) and playing (sports) with the intent to provide lessons and skills to help build a solid family foundation. The mission of the farm is to provide a platform to enhance opportunities for underprivileged youth and families as well as to educate youth and families, including athletes about the importance of agriculture to help build self-sustaining homes. “Sustainability is so important,”
Youth visit the Beulah Family Homestead Farm in East Troy to learn about agriculture and form a connection to the land. SUBMITTED PHOTO Spirit of Geneva Lakes
Marcus Landry, former NBA player, lives on the Beulah Family Homestead Farm in East Troy with his family. The farm’s mission is: “to provide a platform to enhance opportunities for underprivileged youth and families as well as to educate youth and families, including athletes about the importance of agriculture to help build self-sustaining homes.” SUBMITTED PHOTO Spirit of Geneva Lakes
Landry said. “We’re teaching that and the importance of agriculture with classes for kids and adults. We teach all this with biblical principals, based on the sheep and cattle we have. We teach a lot of that. “That’s another reason we do this, to share the Gospel with people.” Landry lives on the farm with his wife and four children and said they are enjoying getting to know the area and community. “The kids love living out here,” he said. “I want them to know there is more to life than the picture the world paints. I think a lot of the time we get the image that everything needs to be glamorous, like social media depicts, but that’s not real. SPIRIT of GENEVA LAKES
There is more happiness out there in the real world than on social media. That’s the image that people get, that everything has to be perfect and glamorous and I think that effects kids when things don’t go their way. They can’t handle it because they don’t know how. With the farm, they see that life isn’t perfect and it’s OK. They’re OK.”
Collaborating to provide more The Beulah Family Homestead is collaborating with WestCare Wisconsin and Harambee Community Involvement Center, 7
