To provide enrichment educational resources to adults and youth who do not have ready access to a working farm; including hands-on livestock workshops, educational publications, mentor programs, peer networking, and teaching compassion for animals and each other.

We are committed to connecting children and adults with their farming heritage while teaching them about the joys and challenges of farming today.

In 1970, the Foundation’s founder Loring Puffer established Rivendell School here. It was a residential institution for New England’s delinquent teenagers until 1982. From 1990 to 1997, the property was home to Learning Networks Foundation, which provided distance learning for adults and in the early 2000s, the Foundation sponsored educational programs for at-risk youth in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a place that was dear to the heart of our founder.

After Loring’s death in 1999, his widow, Carole Soule, turned her attention to reviving the property as a working beef cattle farm. But seeing agriculture as endangered and widely misunderstood, and realizing the beneficial impact farming can have on the lives of young people, she refocused the Foundation’s efforts accordingly.

LNF hosts farm events where one and all are invited to the Miles Smith Farm in Loudon, N.H.

These events give visitors the opportunity to meet cattle, a donkey, goats, a lamb, cattle, calves, pigs, and to see yoked oxen at work.

Elspeth’s Place is just one of the programs we offer to help youth and adults connect with our farming heritage.

The Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 organization and all donations are eligible to be tax-deductible.