Neighbors’ kindness helps Hoaglands get back on feet

Cindy and Richard Hoagland stand in front of the sign at Hoagland Farm. (Photo courtesy Hoagland Farm)

MULLICA HILL — An EF-3 tornado hit this community on Sept. 1, 2021.
The damage was extensive. Dozens of homes were devastated. One of the properties hit was Richard and Cindy Hoagland’s farm.
Their house was damaged. Half of the roof was ripped from the rafters. Furniture, clothing, and other contents of their home were destroyed.
The family’s farming operation was devastated. Trees that had been standing for decades now littered the ground. Debris covered the fields of mums.
As that tornado hit, it was not apparent at that moment of devastation that there was something special hidden within the chaos of the storm.
That element was a light reflective of the compassion that exists among us, but is sometimes only seen when disaster hits in obvious ways: Kindness.
Richard and Cindy saw how kindness enveloped this community.
“About 25 to 30 people came to help us every day,” Richard said. “They helped remove debris out of the mum fields. They helped us rebuild.”
He noted how colleagues of Cindy, now a retired school teacher, helped the family.
“Cindy was still teaching special education classes at the time the tornado hit,” said Richard. “A group of teachers helped feed us. For two months, teachers dropped off two hot meals for us every day.
“The teachers coordinated what they called a ‘meal train’ to help Cindy and me.”
“A friend of mine donated a 50-foot trailer for us to use for storage,” he continued. “We were able to stay at our grandson’s house for three months while our house was being repaired.”
Beyond these efforts, local folks helped the Hoaglands in other ways.
“The community held a benefit at a local firehouse for the people who had property damaged by the tornado,” said Richard. “It was an outdoor event with a band.”
“More than 40 families had been affected by the tornado locally,” he continued. “Two weeks after the event, each family got a check in the amount of a little over $4,000.”
“We were able to get back into our house right before Christmas,” Richard added.
While the people of New Jersey stepped forward to help the Hoaglands, the responses from the family’s insurance provider and the Federal government were different.
People sometimes believe that if you have property insurance, of course, your property will be restored to pre-disaster conditions.
People sometimes believe that if you’re hit with a disaster — a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake — the Federal government will come to your aid.
The reality does not always meet expectations.
“FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] representatives came by the day after the tornado hit,” said Richard. “We were told they were there to help us. We filled out the paperwork. Afterwards, FEMA told us that we did not qualify for any funds — that the Federal government could only provide a loan.”
The Hoaglands decided against going into debt with the federal government. Richard indicated that the total amount of funds provided through insurance was $3,000.
The Hoagland Farm covers about 6 acres in Harrison Township, N.J.
Farming operations began in 1974; the Hoaglands initially raised horses.
The first mums were grown commercially grown in 1979.
“Our middle son, Michael, saw that a neighbor was growing mums,” said Richard. “He was 12 years old at the time and liked the idea of growing mums.”
“In that first year, we grew 100 mums,” he continued. “We grew 500 mums in the second year.”
At one point, the Hoaglands were growing 10,000 mums annually.
“We’ve cut the numbers down in recent years,” said Richard. “We went to 4,500 mums. Then in 2023, we went to about 3,300 mums. This year, we also grew about 3,300 mums.”
“As I was getting older, we switched from growing the mums in the ground to growing them in pots,” he continued. “We switched to pots in 2010.”
The planting process is quite compacted, Richard explained. He said that from start to finish, the 3,300 mums were potted and placed in the fields in about four hours.
“For the past seven years, 14 Amish families from the Allensville area of Pennsylvania [central part of the Commonwealth] have come to our farm to help plant the mums,” Richard said. “The Amish families are long-time friends. We set up the planting operations like an assembly line.”
“Each 9-inch pot is filled with soil and a cutting,” he continued. “The pots with the mums are then taken to the fields, placed two feet apart from each other in rows that are two feet apart.”
Richard explained they grow mums in five colors: yellow, orange, red, purple, and white.
“We grew tri-color mums for one year,” he said. “They weren’t popular with our customers.”
“A lot of our customers are repeat buyers,” Richard continued. “Our location [referring to the farm’s frontage on Route 322] helps. We get people who are traveling to the shore.”
One of the more unusual aspects of this farming operation is the way sales are conducted.
Sales are based on the honor system. The Hoaglands put mums out for sale. If Richard or Cindy are around, people can pay them directly for the mums purchased.
The honor system has worked well for the Hoaglands, they said.
As with this honor system, the response to the damage that resulted from the EF-3 tornado demonstrated a virtue of the people of Mullica Hill and Harrison Township — and beyond.
“We sold out all of our mums in four days after the tornado,” Richard said. “Some people bought two or three mums [priced at $8 each], left $50, and said to ‘keep the change.’ Other people just dropped off money.”
It was those types of actions — along with the other help received — that have made Richard and Cindy both very grateful.
“The response showed us what our country is like,” Richard said.