When you step out of your car and onto the Thrive Flower Farm, the sweet aroma of florals kisses your nose while you’re greeted by the friendly farm dog, Goose.
Right outside of Stillwater on Central Rural Electric Cooperative’s power lines, sits a garden filled with 7,000 tulips ready for your family to hand pick this spring.
Thrive Flower Farm provides custom bouquets, U-Pick events where you can pick flowers by hand and custom workshops. What sets Thrive Flower Farm apart from other florists is how they transform lives with every purchase made.
Change for Congo
What started in 2016 with pint-size change jars has grown into a flourishing cut flower farm, where all proceeds benefit an orphanage in Goma, Congo.
“The whole reason we started Thrive Flower Farm was to raise money for our nonprofit, Change for Congo,” said Sara Alsup, owner of Thrive Flower Farm and creator of Change for Congo.
Every purchase from Thrive Flower Farm benefits Change for Congo. Proceeds help with school fees, food, living expenses and are also helping add a second-story addition to the orphanage.
Sara and her husband, Bobby Alsup, learned about an orphan crisis after they heard about Congo at church. That’s when they felt a calling to adopt their youngest son, Mosi.
Local Congolese, Sadiki-he, helped the family with the long adoption process that took nearly four years. Sadiki currently runs the orphanage the Alsups started.
“We dreamed and prayed with Sadiki about how to help more children for about nine months before we started the orphanage from the ground up,” Alsup said.
The family, now of five, began raising money by collecting change in pint-size jars at local churches.
“With Sadiki’s help, we found a place to rent and began helping 10 children. Now we help take care of 29 children,” Alsup said. “We wanted the children to feel like they were taken care of by family, and not by the bare minimum.”
Alsup’s desire to help didn’t stop there. After brainstorming, she turned back to her roots.
“I wanted to do more than just ask people for money,” Alsup said. “I wanted those giving to receive something as well.”
Farm Beginnings
Alsup was raised on a cotton farm near Elk City in western Oklahoma where her father sat on the board of their local cooperative.
“Growing has been a natural thing for me,” said Alsup. “Creating a sustainable income for our nonprofit was always the goal. Selling goods, especially beautiful flowers that keep me connected to agriculture, seemed like a fitting model.”
Alsup said the farm keeps her connected to her roots and to her father, who passed away before she began Thrive Flower Farm.
“I feel close to my heritage,” Alsup said. “It keeps my hands in the dirt.”
Alsup’s 16-year-old daughter, Marli, will continue the family farming tradition by adding vegetables to sell through Thrive this spring.
A Thriving Flower Farm
Alsup’s favorite Thrive Flower Farm memory was the first time they sold out of tulips in 2022.
“That’s when I felt like people started knowing what we were doing,” Alsup said. “It’s amazing that people know why we’re doing this and want to help.”
The Thrive Flower Farm sells their $12 bouquets for pick up at the farm and at local coffee shops. The garden filled with tulips will be ready to pick by hand in mid-March.
“The flower farm has gotten the word out and has really helped the orphanage grow,” Alsup said. “Those kids are dependent on us and the Thrive Flower Farm.”
Flowers can be purchased at Aspen Coffee in Fountain Square in Stillwater, 7OpenA at the Wesley Foundation on Oklahoma State University’s campus, and Nancy’s on Main in Perkins.
Find more information on Thrive Flower Farm’s custom bouquets, U-Pick events and custom workshops on their Thrive Flower Farm Facebook and Instagram accounts.
For more information visit thriveflowerfarmok.com.
