Pretoria Fields Collective recently partnered with Southern Belle Farm to save a significant portion of their strawberry crop by purchasing it to feed first responders in and around Atlanta. 

  As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, Pretoria Fields Collective quickly transitioned from a brewery to making hand sanitizer which they then sold around Georgia, to include out of their new location on the McDonough Square called Pretoria Fields Farm House.

  “We were blessed by the opportunity that we had a brewery, which is set up to make beer, but we were able to switch it over to make hand sanitizer,” said Tripp Morgan, founder of Pretoria Fields Brewery. “First it started out to help the community, and then to where we could keep our employees employed. It’s turned from that to being able to provide hand sanitizer for Georgia and the southeast.”

  With the money raised from selling their hand sanitizer, Pretoria Fields Collective was able to purchase up to 10,000 gallons of strawberries from Southern Belle Farm. 

  “Going into this season, we knew we had a chance at having a good crop but we didn’t know really how good it would be,” said Jake Carter, owner of Southern Belle Farm.

  Carter says that Southern Belle Farm plants their crop in the fall, in anticipation of school trips and visits to the farm by families to pick strawberries in the spring.

  “With everything going on with COVID-19, the largest part of our operation revolves around elementary school tours coming out to learn about agriculture, and part of that is them getting strawberries to take home. That’s about 25% of our business,” said Carter. 

  However, in light of COVID-19 developments, school trips to the farm have been cancelled and the public is unable to go to the farm to pick strawberries, due to social distancing guidelines.

  At that time, Tony Carder, partner with Pretoria Fields Brewery in Albany, called Carter asking to join forces in order to save their strawberry crop as well as to help the community. 

  “We started thinking, how can we bless people in this community, because we both have been richly blessed by this community,” said Carter.

  Pretoria Fields Collective is a collective of farmers growing the products they put in their beer, 80% of which comes from South Georgia. They work to promote Georgia grown products and support fellow Georgia farmers. 

  “As we’ve helped and want to continue to help South Georgia farming, that’s the reason this was a great partnership, not only to benefit the first responders and people involved in medicine, but to try to take care of and give back to them,” said Morgan. “The only way we get through this thing is together.”

  Providing the strawberries to first responders has a personal impact for Carter, as his sister is a first responder, working on the front lines during this time. 

  “She’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met, plus one of the strongest mentally,” said Carter. “There were tears streaming down her face because she knew the next day she was going into ground zero, so to speak. There were a lot of patients there that day. She knew she was going to be exposed.”

  Carter is grateful that members of the community are able to rally together to make an impact, however small, on the lives of first responders. 

  “I’m so thankful, for many different reasons, that we are able to move these and see them go into the hands of people that will appreciate them,” said Carter. “And although strawberries may seem like a small token, to these people that are on the front lines, it may mean everything for that day.”

  Pretoria Fields Collective and Southern Belle Farm have already delivered about 500 gallons of strawberries to Piedmont Henry Hospital and plan to continue to distribute the strawberries to other area hospitals fire stations, and police departments for as long as they are able.

  “We’ll do every hospital we can until we hopefully run out of strawberries or life gets to normal and everybody can come out here and pick them themselves,” said Carder.

  For more information about Pretoria Fields Collective, visit pre toriafields.com. To purchase hand sanitizer, visit www.pretoriafieldsfarmhouse.com.

  For more information about Southern Belle Farm, visit www.southernbellefarm.com.