The Kaima Network of Sustainable Farms

Our founders visualized Kaima Beit Zayit, established in 2013, not simply as a single farm but as the first within a new type of socially responsible educational network serving national needs. Integral to this vision is scaled expansion, with Kaima Beit Zayit serving not only as the network’s prototype farm but as a learning lab to imagine, develop, and oversee new educational and income-generating initiatives around the country based on social farming principles.

Kaima Farms

Presently, four educational farms operate under Amutat Kaima's leadership: three in Israel and one in Tanzania. All Kaima farms are given access to tested educational programs; evaluation mechanisms; professional, pedagogic, and economic training/mentoring; and agricultural assistance. Each farm, while agreeing to follow Kaima’s “employment-as-education” model, maintains its own identity, board of directors, community relationships, and customer base. Meet them below:

Kaima Inspired Farms

Kaima has also inspired the creation of four additional therapeutic farms throughout Israel. All have benefitted from intensive mentoring through Kaima; some receive ongoing training. Future initiatives will be fostered through Beit Kaima, our new community-based agricultural and educational training center.

Northern Israel

Bein Hatlamim Farm, a youth-run farm located in Ein Irion operating under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council.

Meshek Lev Adam, an intergenerational farm located in Bat Shlomo operating under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council.

Central Israel

Ruca’s Farm, a rehabilitative farm for the treatment of Israeli veteran suffering PTSD a operating under the jurisdiction of Sdot Dan Regional Council.

Beerotayim Farm, formerly Kaima Beerotaim, an intergenerational farm located in the Sharon operating under the jurisdiction of Hefer Valley Regional Council.

Kaima's Parntership With the Shepherd's Group

Kaima encourages others to launch their own eco-educational initiatives, providing support and guidance along the way. The Shepherd’s Group is an example of one such undertaking and partnership. Read more about The Shepherd's Group here.

Beit Kaima: Training Center for Social Farming

For the past decade, Kaima has championed the concept of our “Farm as Classroom” approach to individual and communal engagement. The increasing legitimacy of this educational construct and the role community-led farming plays in sustaining Israel’s food chain demonstrate the imperative to connect people to the agricultural systems upon which they rely. Kaima is poised to lead this movement through the future “Training Center for Social Farming"—Beit Kaima.

...On the physical level, Beit Kaima—to be built using green technologies on another two acres adjacent to our fields—will bring together under one roof a newly streamlined packing house, growing rooms, administrative offices, classrooms, demo kitchen, farmer’s market, wood and metal workshop, and more. We also hope to build a traditional olive press to produce oil from the mature trees we will inherit with the land.

…On the educational level, Beit Kaima will serve as a national training center for educators, social change makers, and other professionals working to connect people to their communities through sustainable farming and responsible consumption. This multi-purpose facility will serve as the home base for Kaima’s efforts to encourage others to adopt/adapt our community-based agriculture methodology for the benefit of the populations in their care, including disenfranchised youth; those recovering from PTSD, drug/alcohol dependency, abuse; and others.

This effort will be particularly important as Israel seeks innovative ways to rehabilitate both Israel's people, who have suffered tremendous trauma, and its agricultural sector upended in the wake of the October 7 war.