Who We Are: Connecting Cultures Through Farming and Food
Transplanting Traditions Community Farm
- Works with 155 refugee adults and children
- Provides 8 acres of farmland
- Has supported refugee farmers to earn over $2 million in total from farm income
- Has grown over 600,000 lbs of produce to date
Our Mission
Our mission is to uplift food sovereignty in the refugee community through access to land, education and opportunities for refugee farmers to address community food insecurity and the barriers they face in reaching their dreams of farming.
Who We Are
Our Vision
Transplanting Traditions Community Farm envisions a world in which all people have access to healthy affordable food, land, education, satisfying work and a space to celebrate culture and to build strong, resilient communities.
Our Values
First and foremost, we uphold the needs and goals of the community we work with as the foundation of our programs.
Advocacy
We advocate for refugees and immigrants to have the autonomy to decide how to re-create home. The farm provides a space for participants to maintain their culture of origin and to resist cultural assimilation in the ways they know best.
Equity
We value equity in our food system by authentically working to include the farmers and consumers that represent our multi-cultural community.
Support
We uplift and support the adult and youth leadership that emerges within the refugee and immigrant community we work with.
Intersectionality
We strive to be intersectional in our work and recognize how cultural identity, ethnicity, class, gender and educational background must be considered in programming.
Investment
We invest time in building accountable and trusting relationships with program participants in order to create meaningful grassroots change.
Resource Abundance
We believe an abundance of resources can support multiple organizations and that shared efforts can lead to greater impact.
Stewardship
We believe that stewardship of the land is inextricably linked to community health and must be upheld in our farming practices.
Our Story
Media, publications and opportunities to learn more.
ANNUAL REPORT 2025 Transplanting Traditions Community Farm
https://www.canva.com/design/DAHIv_kmlPQ/SUUGgYtFf7dVMd2n2lSrEg/view?utm_content=DAHIv_kmlPQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h075016bf7e#1
The Story of Three Farmers
A documentary made by Transplanting Traditions Youth Collaborative. This team conducted all the interviews, took the photos, translated, wrote subtitles, created the story line and edited every bit of this documentary! Thanks to volunteers and support from NC...
The Land
Transplanting Traditions Community Farm (TTCF) is located on 269 acres of preserved farmland owned by the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC). With a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC in 2010, TLC was able to set up the initial infrastructure of the land in...
Meet Our Team
Hsar Ree Ree Wei
Executive Director
Ree Ree was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and resettled to the USA with her family in 2006. She studied Community and Justice Studies, along with Forced Migration and Resettlement Studies at Guilford College. Her passion for immigration justice, cultural food access, uplifting community voices, and community service stems from her lived experiences and her dedication to preserving Karen traditions and supporting ethnic minority groups from Burma. Since 2012, Ree Ree has been involved with TTCF alongside her parents, Zar Ree and Lion Wei, who are CSA Farmers. After graduating high school, she became the Youth Program Coordinator and now serves as the organization’s Executive Director. In her free time, Ree Ree enjoys making pottery, painting, spending time with her nieces and nephews, and watching crime shows.
Christy McCaw
Development Director
Christy grew up in multiple parts of the U.S. and is excited to be a new North Carolina resident. She received a BA from Baylor University and an MA from the University of Sussex in Social Development. Christy has worked in both sustainable agriculture and refugee resettlement at the local, state, and national levels, and brings passion and knowledge from both fields to this role. She has spent many years working for nonprofits and community-based organizations in program management, event planning, community outreach, grant management, fundraising, and developing a diverse range of resources to help organizations and those involved thrive. Christy enjoys cooking projects, supporting her local community, being outside (especially around water), and spending time with loved ones.
Delia Dubon
Agricultural Education Coordinator – Western NC
Delia was born and raised in El Salvador and has always been passionate about the social justice movement. She studied Journalism and Political Science. Delia has worked in the nonprofit, public and private sectors in different initiatives related to women’s economic development, education, social research and local development. In 2014, she moved to North Carolina and started working with local nonprofits supporting Hispanic immigrants in the Henderson and Buncombe area. In 2020, she started ABUNDANCIA, a culturally appropriate food distribution and TIERRA FERTIL COOP, a Hispanic-owned farm cooperative. She loves to share time with her daughter, look for reasons to laugh, be around nature, listen to music, and plan road trips with her family.
Elly Goetz
Associate Director
Elly, a North Carolina native, has a BA in Sociology from the University of Colorado and an MA in Regional Planning from Pratt Institute. Elly began her career working with agricultural communities in Latin America. As the Executive Director of Un Mundo, a grassroots organization based in rural Honduras, Elly led the organization for eight years, guiding it from incubation to a robust regional initiative offering educational, health, and economic development programs. In 2015, she relocated back to North Carolina and stepped into the role of Executive Director at Benevolence Farm, guiding the organization to successfully launch as a residential and agricultural social enterprise program serving formerly incarcerated women. Elly has been involved with TTCF since 2015, initially as a member of the advisory board and later on the first TTCF Board of Directors. Outside of work, Elly spends most of her time hiking, biking, and dancing with her husband, Elias, and her daughter, Micaela.
Julia Htoo
Finance and Administration Director
Executive Assistant
Julia was born in Noh Poe Refugee Camp on the border of Burma and Thailand and lived there for 12 years before moving to the United States and settling in Chapel Hill in 2009. Julia started working with the Karen community in 2021 at Refugee Community Partnership (RCP) in Carrboro, and she started working with TTCF in March 2022. She loves engaging with nature, being outside, and feeling the sunlight. During her free time, she loves to go on hikes, go fishing, and watch comedy shows.
Kelly Owensby
Agricultural Project Director
Kelly began working in sustainable agriculture in 2005 after graduating from UNC–Chapel Hill with a degree in cultural studies. She worked on eight vegetable and flower farms in North Carolina before shifting her work toward community development and founding TTCF in 2010. She is particularly interested in how TTCF serves as a platform to uplift and share cultural traditions around farming and food, foster community and psychosocial well-being, and provide a space for the refugee community from Burma to recreate home after the difficult upheaval of resettlement. Kelly was raised in western North Carolina and has lived in the state her entire life. Outside of TTCF, she studies herbalism, gardens, and loves building, cooking, and creating.
Molly Nguyen
Market Manager and Children’s Program Coordinator
Molly is a Vietnamese American whose parents came to the United States as refugees from Vietnam. Originally from Boone, North Carolina, she is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and feels grateful to be part of the TTCF community. Being at the farm reminds her of her own community and the ways food connects people across generations. She loves working alongside refugee farmers, spending time with children, and helping build community through the farm’s programs. She enjoys spending time with her family in the mountains, eating her mom’s and grandma’s cooking, and being with her dog!
Paw Paw Wei
Youth and Children’s Program Coordinator
Paw Paw Wei was born in Burma and lived on the Thailand–Burma border for nine years in the Thai Hin Refugee Camp before moving to the U.S. in 2006. She has grown up in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro area since she arrived. She is the Youth and Children Programs Director at TTCF and co-founded the Refugee Youth Program in 2014, doing food justice work. Paw Paw loves the Triangle since it is a mix of city, forest, and farming life, which allows her to enjoy all of them without having to travel far. Her passion in life is to help refugee families and her community in need. She loves to cook for her family and enjoys cooking to help her destress. In her free time, she likes to take mini family trips to museums with her children, both within and outside of the states. She also is humbled and blessed to be able to tag along with her grandmother to expose her to the beauty that surrounds us and to life outside of her military dictatorship country.
Tah Htu
Landscape Manager
Tah Htu grew up as a child of farmers in a village in Burma and then became a farmer himself. He and his family lived in Thailand for nine years before coming to the U.S. in 2006. At TTCF, Tah Htu manages the farm landscape, mowing and trimming the farm common areas and outside field edges. He also helps his wife, CSA farmer Ha Na, with all aspects of their farm business, including prepping beds and transplanting as well as harvesting, washing and packing vegetables for the CSA. Tah Htu loves farming and says it is a part of who he is. In addition to working at the farm, Tah Htu works full time on the housekeeping staff at UNC. In his free time he loves to cook using the vegetables he grows, especially in curries and soups. He also enjoys spending time with his children and his five grandchildren.
Tha Dah Wah
Farm and Education Coordinator
Tha Dah Wah has always been inspired by her mom, farmer Tri Sa, and her farming. Growing up in a refugee camp in Thailand, there was not a lot for her to do besides going to school. She helped her family by watering the plants, weeding, and harvesting vegetables in their small garden there. Dah Wah was born in Thailand and lived in the refugee camp for 12 years before moving to the U.S. in 2007. She manages her mom’s community-supported agriculture (CSA) by packing produce, selling at the farmers market, and keeping records. When not working in the field, Tha Dah enjoys traveling, hiking, and taking pictures. In 2020, she became the Program Photographer for TTCF, and in 2021, Dah Wah became the Farm and Education Coordinator.
Board Members
Isabel Lu
ari rosenberg
Lisa Pham
Aby Rao
Mookho Paw
LaShauna Austria
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