Boise Vertical Farm was founded in 2019 with the mission to create a safe community that provides hope and employment for individuals in substance abuse recovery by growing local produce.

 

Meet The Team

Boise Vertical Farm has built a team of highly skilled and passionate professionals brought together by their shared goal of helping the community.

 
 

Board Members

Jeff Middleton,
Co-Founder

Jeff is an Idaho native, having grown up in the eastern part of the state. During his numerous years as a pharmacist, business manager and business owner he lived throughout the state, where he enjoyed cycling, camping, backpacking and skiing all that Idaho has to offer.  Jeff received a Pharmacy Degree from Idaho State University and attended graduate school, where he received an MBA with specialty in Clinical Information Systems.

He has been a lifelong volunteer and community activist who strived to make communities a better place to live. Following a series of heart attacks at a young age, Jeff became one of the founders of the Mended Hearts and Mended Little Hearts Chapter in the Treasure Valley. These programs are national organizations that provide much needed support and mentoring for adults, following catastrophic heart issues, and children, born with heart issues.

For 35 years, Jeff has experienced the depths of hopelessness and desperation from active drug and alcohol addiction.  Having achieved recovery for the past nine years, Jeff believes that drug and alcohol addiction is a community problem, which requires a community solution.  One such solution is Boise Vertical Farm (BVF), founded in 2019 by Jeff and Crystal Spencer. The mission of BVF is to create a safe community that provides hope and employment for recovering individuals by growing local produce.

Through this program, Jeff hopes to reduce unemployment, one of the major causes of relapse. The primary goal of BVF is to overcome this obstacle and alleviate relapse. In addition, Jeff sees BVF as a means to pay reparation for damage he caused during his active addiction, to solve the issue of unemployment in recovery, to support year-round local healthy food production, and to provide a safe and environmentally conscious sustainable work environment.

Crystal Spencer,
Co-Founder

Crystal has long been an advocate of programs designed to provide opportunities for individuals to grow and heal and has participated in several social enterprises in both the Seattle area where she grew up, and Boise. As a board member and organizer in both the finance and personal development committees with The Way Back Inn, Crystal was at the forefront in developing the initial programs for this Seattle based non-profit. She also helped organize the Food Pantry and Crop Walks through her church in Bainbridge Island and was a science mentor in her local high school. Upon moving to Boise Crystal participated with Idaho Public Television, and community outreach through her work at St. Luke’s. She is a firm believer in the strength of community through development of the individuals that make up that community.

With a background in research and health care, in addition to experiences within her own family, Crystal has witnessed first-hand the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the all too often punitive focus of the recovery management of individuals with addictions. There is a better way and Crystal is passionate about working with state and local community partners to shape healthier, more enduring approaches to helping individuals in post-addiction recovery. Her years in research and compliance has cultivated an out-of-the-box thinking and she believes that by leveraging the experiences gained by each of the groups within the effected ripples of addiction we can develop a long-term solution to help end relapse for people in recovery and will be a win for the individual, their families, and the community all together.

 

Staff Members

Amy McIntyre

Amy McIntyre is a senior at Boise State University working towards her Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Professional Studies with certifications in Nonprofit Management, Technical Communication, and a micro-credential in Emotional Intelligence. Amy is an intern with Boise Vertical Farm as a grant writer and fundraiser.

Ms. McIntyre has earned multiple grant writing and consulting certificates from the BSU Center for Professional Development. She is an Idaho master gardener earning certifications from the University of Idaho. Some notable volunteer accomplishments were representing the University of Idaho master gardener program, where she discovered a passion for writing online garden-advice contributions to the Idaho Statesman. Amy co-developed the Meridian Middle School Student Garden, in 2011. She served as a garden advisor on MMS’ board of directors, developed garden project design skills, authored the Dirt Diggers monthly newsletter, and wrote several award-winning grants funding two years of projects.

Amy is developing a nonprofit organization, Giving Hope Garden focused on sustainable farming that produces organic, nutritious vegetables for people with food inequities. She practices various urban garden design methods such as companion planting, square-foot gardening, and vertical crop growing.

Ms. McIntyre is an environmentalist and conservationist, and a member of the National Wildlife Federation. Her yard is a certified "Backyard Wildlife Habitat."

 
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The Ripple Effect

One small change can make a big impact. When an addict starts on the road to recovery, the positive impact starts with the individual, but with time, it expands to family, then to the community, and finally to the society at large. At Boise Vertical Farm, we want to help create that initial drop in the bucket of change.

 
 
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