Progress 05/01/23 to 04/30/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Farmer Veteran Coalition will work with underserved agricultureal producers fromsocially disadvantaged groups with a focus on military veterans who have chosen to in pursue careers in agriculuture. This includesfarmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners and operators promoting USDA products and providing trainining on financial literacy. . Changes/Problems:FVC has recognized a deficiency in how we are collecting data for this project. Although we have provided information to participants, we have not conducted follow-up surveys that would allow us to collect data on the number of participants: who have started farming, increased farm size or capacity, increased farm profits, received, USDA benefits, received a USDA farm loan, applied for a USDA farm loan. As such we will be conducting outreach to participants, we have worked with in the last year to follow-up on how helpful the resources we provided them with have been and see if they need further assistance. FVC has outlined an outreach plan for the next grant year and will continuerevamping our veteran service positions sothat we are able to track the specific ARPTA metrics. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? In November of 2023, Farmer Veteran Coalition hosted our annual National Stakeholder Conference in Washington D.C. During our conference we had the opportunity to host 3 workshops on production agriculture, beekeeping, livestock and urban agriculture led by FVC members. FVC also hosted a Successful Farmer Panel, featuring 3 farmers who had utilized three of our programs, Fellowship Fund, Homegrown by Heros and Market Maker to market and increase production of their products. Participates also had the opportunity to take farm tours and learn about regenerative agriculture and farming on small scale acreage. Our National Conference is one of the opportunities that we have to connect with many of members in person. These are some of the comments they shared about the workshops and panels that they attended: "The successful farming panel was my favorite" "thank you all for putting this on. It is one of my favorite events I look forward to every year" One member sent us this note after attending a webinar on business planning with the Center For Financial management: "It was super helpful. I worked on my plan for 5 hrs after and got quite a bit done! Appreciate the motivation!! Merry Christmas and Thank you all for your service!" In just one month, this webinar recording has gotten 465 views on our Youtube channel. After helping a farmer find a training resource a member sent us this note:Thanks for checking in on our FSA issue and for taking interest in follow-up. FVC has been a huge resource for us! (Requesting 3rd year training resource) Thank you so much! I really appreciate your help with this. Our Veteran Service Provider reports "I have had a few people call FVC a blessing. Veterans can be hard to understand. They have a unique culture that makes it hard for outsiders to understand. We stand in a unique space to get people in agriculture and veterans to understand each other and work together. I have been able to help many people get started in agriculture and point them to helpful resources both inside and outside of the USDA. Farmers.gov and their local extension offices are some of my favorite resources to point people to, along with our state chapters. In February Farmer Veteran Coalition FVC also launched it's annual Fellowship Fund program. Almost 500 farmer veterans submitted Fellowship Fund Applications each containing a business plan with the intention of scaling up their farms. FVC provides Fellowship Fund applicants business plan resources that that include USDA products, SBA products, Center for Farm Financial Management products. FVC hosted a webinars on crafting business planning with Farm Credit and a follow up Q&A webinar, with MarketMaker and with Center For Farm Financial Management FVC released our first ever podcast, going over urban ag with FVC member Amanda Blount. Podcast currently has 56 listens on Spotify and 33 views on YouTube. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Farmer Veteran Coalition regularly collaborates with other partners and continues to seek to understand the needs of military veterans farmers and social disadvantged farmers. This year we surveyed our conference attendees, our webinar attendees, our Fellowship Awardees and our HomeGrown by Heros members to gain as much insight as possible on how to better serve our program participants and increase the impact of our programs. In each of those surveys we request feedback on how we are doing. We also use what we learn from those surveys to shape our work going forward so that it does not get stagnant and truly stays abreast of the needs of the farmers we work with. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Farmer Veteran coalition will continue to offer webinars, workshops and podcasts that aid in increasing participants financial literacy knowledge. Farmer Veteran Coalition will also continue to provide outreach, education and technical assistance to farmer veteran communities, using a formative assessment approach to determine what outreach strategies are working and which ones need to be modified in order to reach the most participants.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Throughout the year, Farmer Veteran Coalition's Veteran Service Providers received calls and emails from Farmer Veterans with questions on a range of topics; starting a farm, what farming grants and loans are available on, estate issues, and creating business plans. We referred Individual's to these programs: USDA Beginning Farmers, Farm Service Agency, USDA FARM Loan Discovery Tool, USDA Urban Ag, Farmers.gov business planning, NRCS, Rural Development, In addition to referring individuals to USDA programs we also provided farmers with connections to their local Extension offices in Texas, New York, Arizona, Maryland, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Missouri, California, South Carolina, Iowa, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware FVC also connected Individual's with Small Business Association, Sustainable Agriculture, Research Education (SARE), Farmers Legal Action Group, business plan services through-Ag Plan, University of Georgia business planning and Small Business Plan In addition to referring individuals to USDA programs we also provided farmers with connections to their local Extension offices in Texas, New York, Arizona, Maryland, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Missouri, California, South Carolina, Iowa, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware FVC also connected Individual's with Small Business Association, Sustainable Agriculture, Research Education (SARE), Farmers Legal Action Group, business plan services through-Ag Plan, University of Georgia business planning and Small Business Plan. FVC's work under the above goals included: Goal 1 Increase understanding of Financial Statements among beginning farmer veterans through financial literacy FVC assisted 47 people with business planning, offering resources on business planning, financial planning, and tax planning. FVC assisted 124 people providing resources and information on Farm Credit, Small Business Administration, and SCORE FVC hosted one webinar with Farm Credit on business planning and another follow-up Question and Answer webinar which was attended by 130 people Goal 2. Increase access to and utilization of USDA programs among farmer veterans. FVC promoted USDA's Beginning Farming and Ranching Virtual Training Webinar for transitioning service members on Facebook and email, reaching over 1,500 people on social media and sent to over 30,000 members subscribed to us via email. Also promoted various FSA programs on Facebook FVC referred over 126 people to USDA programs. FVC worked 11 people interested in applying for farm loans. FVC worked with 10 people to provided information and answer questions on land access, borrowing money and selling products FVC promoted FSA's livestock indemnity program on our social media platforms, with one post reaching 400 users and having close to 500 impressions. Our digital outreach coordinators is constantly communicating with FSA reps to keep up with useful information to share with our member Goal 3. Improve market planning capabilities among farmer veterans. in this quarter our HomeGrown By Heroes program gained 214 new members We also a new label for Maryland, bring our total blended state department labels up to 15. We also added 47 new members to our national online marketing platform Market Maker We also connected a Market Maker producer with resources (NVBDC and Target) who are assisting them with getting into the Class six AAFES. We hosted a webinar with MarketMaker for Hawaii FVC members wanting to specifically reach out to our members in that area after the Maui Wildfires, then posted recording on YouTube for all FVC members to view. YouTube video has over 100 views FVC is also currently in talks with a large grocery store to get HBH-certified products in their stores. The store has over 250 locations. This will increase our farmer veterans market access exponentially

Publications

Progress 05/01/22 to 04/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Farmer Veteran Coalition will target underserved agricultureal producers of socially disadvantaged groups in agriculuture including farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners and operators. Farmer Veteran Coalition will also work with USDA and other USDA grant recipients to support and leverage their work. Changes/Problems:During our first year of the project, FVCrecognized a deficiency in how we are collecting data for this project. Although we have provided information to participants, we have not conducted follow-up surveys that would allow us to collect data on the number of participants: who have started farming, increased farm size or capacity, increased farm profits, received, USDA benefits, received a USDA farm loan, applied for a USDA farm loan. As such we will be conducting outreach to participantswe have worked with in the last year to follow-up on how helpful the resources we provided them with have been and see if they need further assistance. FVCoutlined an outreach plan for the next grant year and will be revamping our veteran service position to better provide continuation of care so that we are able to track the specific ARPTA metrics. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Farmer Veteran Coalition hosted it's annual National Stakeholders conference in Midwest City, Oklahoma in November of 2022. FVC utilized it's conference to offer workshops on: Land Access and planning-45 participants Market Planning and access-3 workshops with a total of 40 participant Accessing USDA programs-24 participants Financial Planning-27 participants Conservation practices-44 participants Agricultural Production Skills-5 workshops with 99 total participants Farmer Veteran Coalition's national staff presented to our state chapters on: present information on Risk Management and Crop Insurance. provide outreach and share about USDA programs How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Farmer Veteran Coalition regularly collaborates with other partners seeking to understand how to work with military veterans who are farming. Farmer Veteran Coaltion utlizes our state chapter as well as our general membership network to share lessons learned and resources. We also utilize our call center and yearly conference to collect feedback from our members on our program so that we continue to keep the farmers needs at the forefront of our mind. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Farmer Veteran Coalition will continue to offer workshops on financial literacy. In addition to the workshop FVCwill continue to make webinars and podcasts that aid in increasing participants financial literacy and market access. Farmer Veteran Coalition will also work to increase outreach efforts to farmer veteran communities, using a formative assessment approach to determine what outreach strategies are working and which ones need to be modified in order to reach the most participants

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Throughout the first year of our program Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) provided information on financial literacy, USDA programs, market planning and access as well providing individualized technical assistance through our call center and support email system. FVC has a dedicated Veteran Service Provider to assist veteran farmers in obtaining any information that they need. FVC also utilizes SalesForce, a CRM system, to log our connections with participants and store resources so that information is readily available anytime a participant contacts FVC. Recognizing a need to better serve our farmer veteran community, in 2022 FVC not only launched a toll free 1-800 number and but also added Language Line as an additional resource to better address the needs of veteran farmers, providing then with access to information in their native language. Not only did FVC provide one on one assistance to veterans through our call center, FVC also hosted workshops focusing on market access and planning, land access and legal concerns, conservation techniques, as well as providedinformation on USDA programs. The workshops in the first quarter were a part of FVC's annual National Stake Holders Conference, where we hosted 256 participants. In addition to workshops conference attendees were also able to hear firsthand from farmer veterans on their experience in the agricultural industry. During the second part of the year participants prepared to apply for FVC's mini grant program called Fellowship Fund. The Fellowship Fund provides funds that allow beginning farmers and ranchers to make purchases that are crucial to the development of their farm business. Applicants are usually in the early stages of farming, so access to mini grants allows farmers to increase production, upgrade equipment and take other steps towards ensuring the success of their farms. The application requires that applicants submit a business plan, as such during this quarter FVC promoted AgPlan and other business development resources to help Fellowship Fund applicants prepare their applications. Goal 1: Increase understanding of Financial Statements among beginning farmer veterans through financial literacy FVC was able to provide producers with resources on developing business plans using newsletters and social media outlets such as Facebook. 19 FVC members reached out in this reporting period to receive business plan assistance through our call center. Additionally, FVC also received over 500 applications to its Fellowship Fund, and with each application including a business plan, awarding grants to 100 applicants. Goal 2. Increase access to and utilization of USDA programs among farmer veterans. FVC used it's many communication channels to increase awareness and access to USDA programs, FVC reached over 2000 farmer veterans during this quarter with our social media and email outreach. In order to increase awareness of USDA programs, our Digital Media specialist strategically promoted USDA programs on FVC's Facebook weekly throughout the last quarter of the grant year. Post dates: March 27, 24, 16, 8, 1, Feb 28, 21, 17, 16, 1, Jan 31, 26, 24, 23, 18, 13. Goal 3: Improve market planning capabilities among farmer veterans Farmer Veteran Coalition had the privilege of receiving the Farm Credit MarketMaket Innovation award, for "Lauching Market Maker for our Homegrown by Heroes (HBH) Label program. Winning this award and sharing about it through out social media channels allowed FVC to further promote our MarketMaker and HBH to our members. During this quarter we also sent out emails to 300 members promoting MarketMaker, providing information on how to sign up and highlighting the benefits of increasing market reach for producer and as a result we had 120 new members join Market Maker At the beginning of this grant year quarter FVC had 2826 members connected to the HomeGrown by Heros (HBH) brand. After targeted outreach promoting the label, 374 new members joined the program increasing. HBH added members in West Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Montana, Louisiana, Illinois, Connecticut, and Arkansas Goal 4 Provide individualized technical support to farmer veterans. FVC connected 32 members with mentors. We assisted 23 members find training and other related opportunities.

Publications