Our Vision
Belkin Family Lookout Farm is dedicated to being the #1 healthy, outdoor, family fun destination in the Boston and Metrowest Area. We embrace a philosophy surrounding healthy nutrition and respect for the environment. Belkin Family Lookout Farm is committed to the preservation of our exquisite farmland and we look to share the virtues of all our products through solid corporate sponsorships, community education and philanthropy.
Lookout Farm is one of eight companies owned by Steve and Joan Belkin of Weston. They have two daughters, Julie and Amy. Julie is married to Michael Rand and they have two sons, Harrison and Tyler. Steve started Trans National Group in 1974 which today employs 250 people in Boston and 50 people at a TNG division in Minnesota.
Steve and Joan have devoted their lives to giving back to the community and making a difference to others. Joan, a former first grade teacher, has championed the cause of caring for malnourished children. Sixteen years ago, the Belkins created a benefit dinner they named Food for Thought. The proceeds went to Boston Medical Center's Grow Clinic which treats children with a condition called failure to thrive. The dinner has become an annual event that has raised more then $10 million to date for the clinic.
The Belkin family has been instrumental in setting up Boston Medical Center's Food Pantry which is the only hospital-based food pantry in the country. The pantry teaches low-income families how to choose and prepare healthy food and provides in-home nutritional assessments of children.
Joan and Steve, working with the Anti-Defamation League, have sponsored an annual trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC for the past 15 years. This day-long educational event has enabled over 2,000 community leaders, students, teachers, and people of all denominations to learn about the effects of discrimination and to build unity and understanding.
In 2005, the Belkin family purchased Lookout Farm in South Natick. Steve saw it as an opportunity to mix two favorite interests: business and philanthropy. The Belkins have underwritten the cost of farm tours by inner-city teens and by many child-and family-oriented organizations to have them experience the beauty and healthy atmosphere of a working farm.
Joan and Steve are on the Board of Hoffman Institute and are key funding sponsors of Harvard Kennedy School students being able to experience the Hoffman Process. This program helps these future leaders to gain better understanding of their inner lives, motivations, and how patterns of their parents and their parents' parents influence who they are.
Joan and Steve have served as Board members or Trustees of Boston Medical Center, Harvard Business School, Cornell University, the Sports Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Anti-Defamation League and HRS.
In 2001, Faulkner Hospital renamed one of its busiest buildings "Belkin House' in recognition of Joan and Steve's generous pledge to Faulkner Hospital. Their donation was directed to the Faulkner-Sagoff Breast Imaing and Diagnostic Center housed in Belkin House.
Joan Belkin explains, "Our family mantra is that you get more from giving than receiving."
