Keeping the Faith
Alot changed since former CW editor Ann Kaiser visited the Eco-Justice Center in Racine, Wisconsin, for an early 2015 issue. For one thing, Sister Janet Weyker, who founded the center with four other Dominican sisters 16 years ago, has retired from serving as its executive director.
Now nearing 80, Sister Janet is thankful to have a younger generation managing the center’s day-to-day operations. She still lives at the educational farm, teaching fiber classes and helping with events. “I’m just a volunteer now,” she says. “It’s nice on snowy mornings like this when I don’t have to go out and do chores.”
The “Eco-J,” as Sister Janet calls it, began in 2004 with a mission to teach about sustainable living and conservation. It occupies 15 acres and is home to four nuns, five alpacas, bees, rabbits, laying hens, ducks and geese.
About 6,000 visitors each year come to the farm for classes in handcrafts, youth farm camps, bird-watching and seasonal festivals. Much has stayed the same, although the flock of geese and ducks has dwindled. Changes since 2015 include additions to the staff, more educational programs and a new hoop house, which has extended the farm’s growing season from February through November.
There is now a summer Farm Corps program; four high school students and two college mentors spend the growing season raising mixed vegetables for sale at the farm’s on-site market. “The aim of the program is to teach young people about organic gardening,” Sister Janet says.
The Eco-J also welcomes half of all of the first-graders in the Racine Unified School District— about 650 kids—each October to learn about healthy eating and how to take care of the soil their fruits and veggies grow in.
As the center looks to the future, its directors are working to create a nonprofit to manage and fund it for decades. A second generation of children began arriving on the farm last season, so the sisters know it serves a need. “It’s touching people’s lives, and now it’s affecting their kids,” Sister Janet says.