Watching Them GROW

Growing Real Opportunities for Work at Kazimour Farm & Orchard

Just a few years ago, life on the Kazimour family’s century-old farm was quiet. Vegetable and flower gardens surrounded the farmhouse and life had settled into an easy flow. By the fall of 2025, things were looking and sounding much different. More than 70 visitors walked among the rows of young fruit trees while chickens clucked in the background as youth from Four Oaks proudly presented the results of their year-long project.

Like a growing number of local nonprofits, Four Oaks partnered with GROW at Kazimour Farm & Orchard to create a service-learning opportunity for youth in its residential treatment program. Participants planted and harvested vegetables, created their own salsa, designed labels, and developed marketing plans. Along the way, they built practical skills and took pride in their work.

“See that fence?” one young boy asked the crowd. “We kids built that fence. No one thought we could, but we did.”

Like that proud young man, hundreds of students, adults with disabilities, and volunteers have discovered new skills, purpose, and community at the farm.

Saving a Family Legacy

The Kazimour Farm & Orchard was established by John and Mary Kazimour in 1919. By the early 2000s, the next generation had grown up and moved on, and the orchard had settled into a quiet repose awaiting its next adventure.

For Kim Kazimour, who spent countless childhood days exploring her grandparents’ farm with her sister Kory, the thought of losing it was heartbreaking.

“I would literally have dreams of our family standing at the bottom of the driveway blocking bulldozers,” Kim said. “I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to buy it, or what I would do with it if I could, but I always told my cousin, ‘If you ever decide to sell, tell me first.’”

Meanwhile, Kim had built a career as a psychologist and therapist, earning a Ph.D. and spending more than 20 years helping others. She also joined others in establishing GROW HUB, a nonprofit in Gainesville, Florida, that uses horticultural therapy to improve lives through meaningful work in nature.

As GROW HUB took root, Kim realized the model could one day be adapted for her family’s Iowa farm.

Then her cousin called.

Kim and Kory purchased the property and invited another cousin, Maureen, to live in the farmhouse and help manage the land. As it turned out, Maureen and her husband had long ago dreamed of purchasing her family’s farm in Swisher, only to see it turned into a housing development.

“It was like divine intervention,” Kim said.

Working with the schools to help students with disabilities transition into adulthood also revealed a wider need for hands-on learning opportunities. Besides partnerships with The Arc of East Central Iowa, Four Oaks, and To the Rescue, GROW has also worked with students from Metro and City View High Schools to create projects that connect classroom learning with real-world experience.

Meeting an Overlooked Need

Starting a nonprofit is challenging under any circumstances. Fortunately, the Kazimours had GROW HUB’s experience to guide them and a large extended family of cousins with a range of skillsets and a willingness to pitch in.

“The first year in 2023, we had 15 adults with disabilities in a pilot program,” Kory said. “The second year we jumped all the way to 100, then 150 last year.” The increasing number of participants, visitors, volunteers, and partnering organizations reflects both the family work ethic and a significant unmet need.

“Students with disabilities can stay in school until age 22, but then what?” Kim asks. “Many haven’t had opportunities to develop employable skills, and day programs are underfunded and in short supply. Too often, people end up staying at home while family members try to balance caregiving with full time jobs of their own.”

GROW helps bridge that gap by providing meaningful work, hands-on learning, and opportunities to build both professional and social skills at no cost for participants and their families.

“We have people coming all the way from Center Point, and interest from people in Benton County,” Kory said. “There simply aren’t programs closer to home.”

Planting Seeds for the Future

In its first few years of serving the community, GROW has become a place where people of all abilities can contribute, learn, and thrive.

Volunteer support has fueled much of that progress. Corporate groups recently helped plant more than 80 new apple trees – an investment not only in the orchard’s future harvest but also in the organization’s long-term impact.

Anyone who knows the Kazimour family might say the success comes as no surprise.

When their father asks Kim and Kory to recite the family motto established by their grandparents, they answer in unison: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Today, that philosophy lives on across the orchard in every tree planted, every fence repaired, and every person who leaves believing they are capable of more than they imagined.

Learn about other nonprofits making a difference here.