Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience: Audience Emphasis Farmworkers Immigrant producers Limited resource producers Specialty crop producers Women Participants Served Record the total number of unique participants who participated in your program: Total Number of Participants: 63 Enter the actual cumulative number of participants who as a result of your program: Started farming: Target - 20, Actual - 22 Helped prepare to start farming: Target - 20, Actual - 27 Improved farming success: Target - 100, Actual - 63 Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Delivery Total Meetings: 0 Total Meeting Participants: 0 Total Webinars: 0 Total Webinar Participants: 0 Total Website Visits: 11728 Total Online Course Participants: 0 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Promotional Materials Fresh Start Farms website created To increase markets for beginning farmer, including through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), wholesale contracts, farmer's markets, farm stands and through SNAP/EBT programs. Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS) website update To inform community members, donors, grantors, and participants about ORIS programming with updated content ORIS website complete re-design To communicate and provide informational resources for beneficiaries, partners and supporters of the program, including farmers, customers, consumers, program partners, and funders. Workplace Wellness Promotional Material Promotional material used with local businesses to support CSA sales & distribution and encourage sponsorship of Mobile Market stops. Know Your Farmer Postcards Selection of postcards describing individual farmers' backgrounds and reasons for farming. Shared with customers each week to raise awareness of the programming behind ORIS's CSA and other produce sales. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Steps Steps taken to help participants Next steps for Program - ORIS will expand its focus on land access, including stable, long-term leases and additional owned land. It will also increase programmatic structure to ease reliance on TA as beginner farmers transition to advanced. These two main next steps will allow integration of new farmers into the incubator program. In pursuit of this, ORIS plans to utilize its relationships with the USDA and other partners that can support individual farmers with their land access and production needs. Additionally, ORIS will focus on customer retention after seeing significant growth in customers this year. The goal into 2021 will be to maintain consistency in farmer income, with potential for modest growth. ORIS will also expand farmer workshops on food hub operations and production planning for the 2021 season, recognizing that COVID's impact on 2020 training has left a gap on some topics which needs to be filled going into the next season. In terms of longer-term farm planning, ORIS will work with interested farmers on co-op development that can support efficiencies in production and marketing, improve utilization of shared resources, and improve income opportunities. It will also advance plans for piloting fruit production with advanced farmers. Finally, ORIS is eager to receive the results of the final evaluation from Jim Hanna and to analyze and apply learnings for all three program evaluations, once completed.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Results: What Producers Learned, Achieved, Applied Result 1. Strengthen farm enterprises of 15 current beginning refugee farmers Producer action: Implement, Topic: Cost of production and farm financial benchmarking When measured: annually Estimated Number: 15, Actual Number: 19 How verified: annual written analysis of profit and loss Result 2. Establish new farm incubator(s) to support 30 beginning farmers Producer action: Develop, Topic: Access to land When measured: assessment annually and cumulative assessment every three years Estimated Number: 30, Actual Number: 33 How verified: track the number of farmers accessing land Result 3. Over 100 beginning farmers and ranchers who will make beneficial changes in farm operations as a result of this project Producer action: Implement, Topic: Vegetables When measured: annually Estimated Number: 100, Actual Number: 63 How verified: tracking annual production AND independent survey of food safety improvements Result 4. 20 new farm startups Producer action: Understand, Topic: Business and strategic planning When measured: assessment annually and cumulative assessment every three years Estimated Number: 20, Actual Number: 24 How verified: tracking quantity of farm startups after 3 years Result 5. 15 agricultural service providers who will develop new relationships with and provide services to immigrant beginning farmers Producer action: Develop, Topic: Mentoring, apprenticeships, and internships When measured: assessment annually and cumulative assessment every three years Estimated Number: 15, Actual Number: 16 How verified: Tracking service provider activity on farm & with farmers.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Audience Emphasis Farmworkers Immigrant producers Limited resource producers Specialty crop producers Women Participants Served Record the total number of unique participants who participated in your program: Total Number of Participants: 39 Enter the actual cumulative number of participants who as a result of your program: Started farming: Target - 20, Actual - 21 Helped prepare to start farming: Target - 20, Actual - 21 Improved farming success: Target - 100, Actual - 39 Since the start of the grant period, our efforts have reached immigrant and refugee farmers with varying levels of experience farming in New Hampshire through trainings, workshops, and experiential learning opportunities. The farmers involved in our program represent various countries of origin including Somalia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Bhutan. Within this group of refugee and immigrant farmers, we separated participants into three target audiences: beginning farmers with 0-2 years of experience, advanced farmers with 3-5 years of experience, and advanced farmers who have had 8-10 years of experience farming with the program and are ready for the next step in making their farm into an independent business. Activities held in this grant period were directed towards each group based on their level of experience, with some activities involving multiple groups in different capacities. Additional target audiences for this grant period included other refugee farmers in the region, participants and staff at other refugee training programs in New England, and a group of refugee youth interested in learning more about food and farming. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?10 Beginning Farmer Workshops: were hosted by ORIS staff, UNH Cooperative Extension staff, or industry professionals, and were 3 hours each. All beginning farmer workshops were delivered at the New American Africans conference room and the Center Point Church in Concord, NH as an in-kind contribution. Schedule: Date Beginning Workshops 1/18/2019 Markets Overview 1/25/2019 Season Preparation (seed orders) 2/8/2019 Financial Literacy 2/22/2019 5 Ways to Increase Traffic to your Ag Business + Retain Customers 3/1/2019 Farm Planning 3/15/2019 Business Planning 3/22/2019 Integrated Pest Management 4/5/2019 Starting the Season 4/12/2019 Food Safety 4/12/2019 Farm Policy Review and Leadership Elections In 2018 it was found that an Agricultural ESL curriculum is best delivered in small amounts, over a longer time frame. Therefore in 2019 rather than to teach ESL for an hour at the beginning of the workshop, it was refined to be interspersed throughout the workshops. Key topics for Agricultural ESL includedK: Vegetable names Units of sale: by the pound, by the bunch, one by one Conversational practice for selling at farmers markets Markets lingo Using a calendar to keep records of planting dates 8 Advanced Farmer Workshops: ORIS staff, UNH Cooperative Extension staff, or industry professionals hosted an advanced curriculum of eight 3 hour agricultural, marketing, financial literacy and business planning. All Advanced farmer workshops were delivered at the ORIS conference room in Manchester, NH. In October 2018, ORIS staff held a series of end-of-season farmer meetings for Advanced NASAP farmers to review their training and technical assistance needs for 2019. Schedule: Date Advanced Workshops 2/1/2019 Pest and Disease Management 2/15/2019 Greenhouse seedling production 2/22/2019 Whole farm planning 3/8/2019 Wholesale best practices 3/22/2019 Financial Literacy 3/29/2019 Food Safety and Cold Storage 4/26/2019 Marketing and Customer Service 5/3/2019 Food Safety Workshop Curriculum: For both Beginning and Advanced curriculum, a combination of materials adapted from ISED Solutions Refugee Farmer Teaching Handbook and custom materials that were designed by ORIS and/or the workshop facilitator to meet the needs of the farmers in NASAP. An example includes the Farmer Notebook, a custom record-keeping tool provided to NASAP farmers. Technical Assistance- Beginning Land-based: All Beginning and Advanced farmers received a total of 1200 hours of individualized land-based technical assistance from ORIS staff, partner organizations, or industry professionals throughout the season. Key Topics: plot preparation, planting, irrigation, succession planning, fruit production, Food Safety demonstration, greenhouse preparation, fertility management, weed control measures, water management, pest management, produce packing, harvest techniques, crop spacing. Technical Assistance- Marketing: All Beginning and Advanced farmers received a total of 818 hours of individualized market-based technical assistance from ORIS staff, partner organizations, or industry professionals throughout the season. Key Topics: record-keeping, farmer's market sales, farmer's market displays, wholesale distribution, mobile market operations, customer service, marketing materials. Farmer to Farmer Mentoring: ORIS piloted a new, more formalized version of peer-to-peer mentoring. Although this has occurred informally in the past, in 2019 staff trained and facilitated Advanced NASAP farmers (3-8 years experience) to deliver and keep records on the following Technical Assistance topics to Beginning farmers (0-2 years experience) over 13 market days, 8 hours each day for a total of 104 hours: Key Topics: timeliness, pricing, customer engagement, agricultural English, record-keeping, farmer's market sales, farmer's market displays, wholesale distribution, mobile market operations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Partner Outreach/Resource Sharing: From September 2018-February 2019, ORIS collaborated with the following organizations to conduct culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach about the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project: the Bhutanese Community of NH, and the Congolese Community of NH, Sycamore Community Gardens, Grow Nashua, and New American Africans. Resource sharing of specific technical resources and tools with refugee farms including Cultivating Community and Grow Nashua proved to be highly valuable and easily facilitated due to the high interest in learning from peer-to-peer partners. Orientation/Intake: In December 2018 and January 2019, ORIS conducted orientation for 10 new farmers who were referred to the program from partner organizations. Orientation included informational meeting about the NASAP program, detailing what the program offers, and the requirements for participation. Of the 10 attendees, 10 signed up to complete a participant intake for admission into the NASAP program. Conferences: Sharing of project progress and resources by NASAP farmers and ORIS staff occurred at the NH Food Alliance Annual Meeting, the Mobile Market Summit, and the BFRD PD meeting. Outreach at Markets: 9 farmers markets, 5 farm stands, 6 Mobile Market sites are incredible opportunities for demonstrating to the community how successful the economic opportunity of small-scale farming can be. It is noted that there is a certain pride that farmers carry to market by showing their products and exacting compensation for their efforts. This is not lost on community members, who observe this and regard NASAP farmers as leaders in the community. Furthermore, this has led to a waiting list of potential farmers eager to join the program. Media Exposure: In 61 separate interactions with magazines, news teams, radio stations, newspapers, online publications, and during live events, 25 NASAP farmers shared stories and learnings with the public. These publications were specifically shared with other refugee farm programs so they could gain exposure to the NASAP program. Evaluation: ORIS received a detailed program evaluation from Jim Hannah, an independent consultant with 20+ years experience with Beginning farmer training. The details of his evaluation and recommendations are currently being synthesized for dissemination to the farmers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In addition to continuing training and technical assistance for our Beginning and Advanced farmers in land- and market-based skill development, and business planning, NASAP believes that the following steps will be essential to fully accomplish the goals set out in our BFRD proposal: Implement recommendations from 2019 Evaluation Conduct outreach in Spanish to Latino communities in Manchester and Concord Through targeted outreach increase the number of farmers within New England that attend our trainings/workshops to at least 20 additional attendees Conduct multi-lingual outreach in advance of workshops Continue to build strong relationships with other farmer organizations in our region through site visits and learning exhanges Improve infrastructure and equipment at our Incubator Farms to include drip irrigation, cold storage and a tractor Install additional perimeter fencing and composting bays at our incubator farm in Concord Develop a food safety plan Draft policies around food safety in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Maintain and strengthen partnerships with USDA agencies Conduct 2020 programatic evaluation.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
IMPACT STATEMENT: Hundreds of refugees and immigrants with agriculture skills and a desire to farm, have fled war, famine, and extreme poverty, to re-settle in New Hampshire over the last 10 years. This BFRDP award has enabled our rigorous incubator training program, in conjunction with partner organizations and technical service providers, to assist 33 of these Beginning farmers to establish successful farm enterprises. In 2019, through 2,072 hours of training and technical assistance on 3 incubator farms, ORIS has facilitated culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach, training, business planning, peer-to-peer mentoring, and access to 9 farmer's markets, 5 farm stands, 6 Mobile Market sites. The challenge of operating successful small-scale farming businesses is ongoing- however with the support of the BFRDP, we have advanced the reach and depth of this program immensely. Objective 1) Provide outreach and beginning level training for refugees and immigrants in Concord and Manchester, NH. Target: 20-25 farmers with 0-2 years experience will participate in Beginning farmer trainings. Actual: 22 farmers. Major activities: Outreach/Orientation/Intakes: Culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach, conducted an Orientation, and completed intakes for 10 new farmers. 10 Beginning Farmer Workshops.and Ongoing Technical Assistance. Land Access: Increase from 5 to 7 acres for Beginning farmers. Farmer to Farmer Mentoring: ORIS piloted peer-to-peer mentoring taught by Advanced farmers. Market Access: ORIS aggressively developed several new "incubator" markets for the 2019 season. Data collected and Summary statistics: $98,757 total sales for all farmers (combined Beginning and Advanced farmers) 56,231pounds of food grown total (combined Beginning and Advanced farmers) 30 hours of workshops delivered to Beginning farmers 1,352 hours of technical assistance delivered to Beginning farmers 104 hours of peer mentoring received Key outcomes: 2019 was significant for increasing broad farming knowledge, including agricultural systems, markets in New Hampshire, and agricultural ESL. Also, it was observed how much more technical applied knowledge that second-year farmers were able to absorb than first-year farmers. Exposure to land management services proved to be a major source of learning for farmers. For example, expansion of the Beginning farmer acreage allowed for first-year farmers to participate in erecting 2 acres of fencing, a valuable skill for pest management. Objective 2) Provide advanced agricultural training for refugee and immigrant farmers participating in land and market-based training Target #: 10-12 farmers with 3-5 years of experience will participate annually, attend trainings, increase knowledge and skills, improve their farm businesses, and document their annual cash flow. Actual: 12 farmers Major activities: 8 Advanced Farmer Workshops and ongoing Technical Assistance. Land Access: Expanded from 11 acres to 14 acres. 7 of these acres are exclusively for training Advanced farmers. Farm Infrastructure: As a learning opportunity, farmers participated in construction of one additional shared high tunnel, water pump installation, and wash station installation. Data collected and Summary statistics: 24 hours of workshops delivered 666 hours of technical assistance delivered See Objective 1 for further combined statistics Key outcomes: Installing electricity on farm allowed for Advanced farmers to learn how to manage electricity usage, and operate a breaker box, well pump, and water regulator, which are valuable skills for irrigating their farm plots. Objective 3): Support refugee farmers to develop business plans that include long-term land tenure Target #: 8-10 farmers with 5-8 years experience will participate annually Actual: 14 farmers New American Farmer Cooperative (NAFC): 9 Advanced farmers maintained membership in the farmer cooperative, conducted an extensive review and update of NAFC policies. Financial Literacy and Business Planning: 9 Advanced farmers participated in a full workshop on financial literacy, as well as ongoing individual financial planning assistance on a consistent basis. Long- Term Farm Planning: contributed to plans to develop a parking lot and farm stand. Permits were approved by the city. Data collected and Summary statistics: 9 refugee farmers developed business plans 9 refugee farmers participated in financial literacy workshop and received ongoing assistance 9 refugee farmers participated in a land-based farmer cooperative Key outcomes: 2019 was the second season for Advanced farmers leasing land since the 56.8 acre incubator Story Hill Farm purchase in May 2018. ORIS achieved permitting and installation of electricity at the farm, which has accelerated many of the business plans of Advanced farmers as they expand their technical knowledge adopt new techniques enabled by electricity-driven technologies, such as drip irrigation. To diversify markets and potentially decrease labor inputs, 5 farmers requested and received training on perennial strawberry production. ORIS staff planted a demonstration garden and farmers followed with pilot plantings on their own plots. Objective 4): Share resources and best practices with other refugee training programs throughout New England and the country. Orientation: ORIS staff conducted outreach to open the schedule of Beginning farmer workshops to refugee participants in partner organizations. Partnerships:ORIS staff and NASAP Farm Managers visited and engaged in ongoing communication with Cultivating Community, a refugee farm program in Maine. Both organizations shared resources and tools, such as cold storage specifications, which were directly shared with all 33 NASAP farmers. Conferences: At the BFRD Project Directors meeting, NH Food Alliance statewide gathering, and Mobile Market Summit, a total of at least 16 regional farm programs and agencies which serve new Americans in attendance, learned about NASAP's cooperative enterprise model from ORIS staff and farmers. Data collected and Summary statistics: 33 refugee farmers gained specific knowledge from peer-to-peer partner organization 156 hours of outreach conducted 61 farmer interactions with the media to share NASAP resources and tools Key outcomes: Interactions with the media served as opportunities for farmers to a) learn communication skills and b) how to utilize the media as a tool for sharing resources, best practices, and stories with other refugee training programs around the country. Knowledge learned and applied from peer-to-peer partner organizations is extremely valuable in complementing the teaching that we can do internally. Objective 5) Connect NASAP and other refugee farmers from the region with local agricultural and other service providers Training from Technical Service Providers: ORIS staff maintained consistent communication, planning, and collaboration with technical service providers including UNH Cooperative Extension, USDA NRCS, and the USDA Farm Service Agency, Capital Well, and Good Earth Farms, to communicate the training needs of the advanced farmers for 2019. Data collected and Summary statistics: 21 Advanced and Beginning farmers to apply for the USDA Farm Service Agency's Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). Key outcomes: A positive impact of consistent relationship-building between farmers and technical service providers, especially for Advanced farmers, is the increase in direct communication and trust-building, resulting in increased access of these services. In applying for a NRCS high tunnel, farmers improved their business models by extending their farming season. The skill of applying for the grant, and getting to know the NRCS staff, was valuable for increasing their independence.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Since the start of the grant period, our efforts have reached immigrant and refugee farmers with varying levels of experience farming in New Hampshire through trainings, workshops, and experiential learning opportunities. The farmers involved in our program represent various countries of origin including Somalia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Bhutan. Within this group of refugee and immigrant farmers, we separated participants into three target audiences: beginning farmers with 0-2 years of experience, advanced farmers with 3-5 years of experience, and advanced farmers who have had 8-10 years of experience farming with the program and are ready for the next step in making their farm into an independentbusiness. Activities held in this grant period were directed towards each group based on their level of experience, with some activities involving multiple groups in different capacities. Additional target audiences for this grant period included other refugee farmers in the region,participants and staff at other refugee training programs in New England, and a group of refugee youth interested in learning more about food and farming. Participants Served: Record the total number of unique participants who participated in your program: Total Number of Participants: 44 Enter the actual cumulative number of participants who as a result of your program: Started farming: Target - 20, Actual - 12 Helped prepare to start farming: Target - 20, Actual - 23 Improved farming success: Target - 100, Actual - 18 Audience Emphasis: Farmworkers Immigrant producers Limited resource producers Specialty crop producers Women Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Summary of Progress:Objective 1) Provide outreach and beginning level training for refugees and immigrants in Concord and Manchester, NH In November 2017, ORIS held an on-farm composting workshop for beginning refugee farmers in Concord, coinciding with end of season farm clean up. 5 farmers participated in a hands-on workshop on vegetative compost pile preparation using all of the farm waste, plus off-farm manure and hay, purchased with BFRDP funds. From September 2017-February 2018, ORIS Collaborated with the following organizations to conduct culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach about the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project: Sycamore Garden: a community garden in Concord which hosts 180 families, mostly refugees. New American Africans, a community based non-profit in Concord Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire Democratic Republic of Congo Community of New Hampshire Ascentria Services for New Americans: the refugee resettlement agency in Concord Second Start: ESL class serving new Americans Merrimack County Conservation District On December 15th 2017, ORIS hosted a two hour informational meeting about the NASAP program, detailing what the program offers, and the requirements for participation. 32 prospective participants attended, representing the Bhutanese, Congolese, Burundi, Rwandan and Somali Bantu communities. After the initial orientation, ORIS provided a second orientation for 6 individuals who were unable to attend. Out of the 38 attendees, 16 signed up to complete a participant intake for admission into the NASAP program. Schedule for beginning farmer "orientation workshops" included: Introduction to Direct Markets for Farmers in NH Community Supported Agriculture Selling at Farmers Markets (in collaboration with UNH Cooperative Extension) Sourcing Seeds Developing a Farm Enterprise Budget Production Planning and Crop Calendars for NH Curriculum for the workshops was a combination of materials adapted from ISED Solutions Refugee Farmer Teaching Handbook and materials that were designed by ORIS to meet the needs of the farmers in NASAP. ORIS collaborated with advanced NASAP farmers to deliver the following workshops: Introduction to Direct Markets for Farmers in NH and Selling at Farmers Markets. This allowed beginning refugee producers to learn from other farmers who began with a similar background and set of circumstances. Agricultural ESL and Financial Literacy curriculum was refined to be delivered in tandem with orientation workshops: Vegetable names Units of sale: by the pound, by the bunch, one by one Conversational practice for selling at farmers markets How much seed do you need? Cost comparisons buying retail versus wholesale. Developing a budget Using a calendar to keep records of planting dates All beginning farmer workshops were delivered at the Center Point Church in Concord, NH as an in-kind contribution All beginning farmers received individualized technical assistance throughout the growing season. This included education around pest management, crop spacing, harvest techniques, irrigation best practices, produce washing, and produce packing. Summary of Progress: Objective 1b) Facilitate market based training programs and coordinate the Fresh Start Farms collective marketing initiative. How to harvest and pack for CSA:This workshop was delivered at the incubator farm site in Dunbarton, September 2017, where advanced farmers were packing Fresh Start Farms NH CSA shares for delivery. In preparation for expanding the Fresh Start Farms NH collective from 14 to 26 new American farmers, ORIS developed several new "incubator" markets for the 2018 season: The logistics for 2 Fresh Start Farms NH incubator farm stands in Concord, NH were established in the winter of 2017-2018. These sites were also promoted as CSA pickup sites. A new wholesale contract with the St Paul's School will feature produce grown by ORIS beginning farmers for use in their cafeteria. The school does operate a summer student program, which is convenient, given the NH growing season. The 14 advanced farmers (5-7 years of experience) met to receive CSA customer feedback from the 2017 season CSA member survey. ORIS staff compiled feedback and presented to the farmers to inform producers on strengths and areas for improvement in 2018. At the end of the session, the farmers wrote "Thank You" cards to their individual customers. ORIS staff supported advanced farmers to fill out 8 farmers market applications for 2018. ORIS staff developed CSA marketing materials that included the 2 incubator sites in Concord, plus the existing 14 CSA pickup sites operated by the advanced farmers throughout Southern New Hampshire. ORIS tracks CSA membership by season, size and pickup site and communicates the number of customers to the individual farmers who grow shares for a specific site. ORIS staff met with the 14 advanced growers in early March to develop a production plan for a new wholesale account for romaine lettuce. Farmers began planting lettuce in their high tunnels by mid-March to meet the 500 head/week demand. Throughout the growing season, farmers received consistent assistance in preparing for market, customer service, and successfully executing market sales. Summary of Progress: Objective 2)Provide advanced agricultural training for refugee and immigrant farmers participating in land and market-based training.? In Sept 2017, ORIS staff held an end of season farmer meeting for advanced farmers participating in NASAP to review their training and technical assistance needs for 2018 The NASAP director attended the annual farmer training meeting of technical service providers at UNH Cooperative Extension to communicate the training needs of the advanced farmers for 2018. NH Pesticide Regulations Greenhouse seedling production Small fruit production ORIS collaborated with USDA NRCS and UNH Cooperative Extension to deliver a workshop on crop rotation and cover cropping. The 14 farmers who attended this training increased their knowledge of how to design an effective crop rotation to improve soil fertility and reduce pests and disease. The 14 farmers decided to adopt a crop rotation strategy at the Dunbarton farm site in 2018 that would incorporate cover cropping for land to lie fallow. ORIS led an advanced workshop to develop a strategy with producers on standardizing units of sale for Fresh Start Farms NH collective sales to improve marketing via wholesale and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program 10 advanced farmers decided to adopt standardized units of sale in 2018 10 advanced farmers learned about new wholesale marketing opportunities via online marketplace platforms. 10 advanced farmers decided to advertise their produce using live online platforms in 2018 for the first time. ORIS met with 14 advanced farmers to document outcomes of 2017 farm season to establish a benchmark for this BFRDP project. Collective sales were $90,000. This project began at the end of the 2017 season. Staff will meet with farmers at the end of each season to help individuals document their profit and loss. ORIS supported 13 advanced farmers to apply for the USDA Farm Service Agency's Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). ORIS applied for the USDA/NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) on April 20th, 2018. This application was funded and will support a farm wide Irrigation Water Management Plan that will provide micro-irrigation to all 14 advanced farmers at the Dunbarton incubator site, as well as fund the construction of one additional high tunnel. This will bring the total from 5 to 6 high tunnels at the incubator farm for shared use amongst NASAP participants. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Below is a tangible example of information dissemination to the community of interest, beginnning farmers including the New American Farmers Coop. These accounts provide insight into the manner of information-sharing, farmer empowerment, and skill building that occurs within the program. Example 1 Financial Literacy Education: Management of the New American Farmers (NAF) Co-op joint account had, until recently, been deferred by the NAF cooperative to the NASAP program manager, due to the limited financial literacy skills among the group. The account is maintained using excel. While the farmers have developed their skills to the point where they are keeping records of income and expenses as individuals using the cash accrual method with pen and paper. In April 2018, one of the coop's board members (one of the farmers) volunteered to learn how to take on the bookkeeping. He received a two hour tutorial from the NASAP program manager. By the end of the session he was entering farmer deposits and expenses. While the NAF cooperative builds their capacity for self-management and bookkeeping, they have decided to continue to market and brand under the Fresh Start Farms NH marketing collective. In order to increase brand visibility and business viability, Fresh Start Farms NH met with the NAF cooperative to discuss opportunities for marketing online. The logistics for posting products for the cooperative entail streamlining units of sale and cost per unit. Until now, farmers have maintained independence regarding bunch size and pricing. This workshop was a practical exercise in financial literacy, whereby units of sale were harmonized and adopted by the cooperative, along with 2018 wholesale prices that were consequently published for distribution to potential buyers. ORIS will host workshops on financial literacy in January-Feb 2019. Fresh Start Farms NH secured 3 new wholesale accounts (2 schools and one local grocer) for head lettuce: romaine, red leaf and green leaf. The NAF cooperative met to discuss price points and the option to deliver the produce or pay a delivery fee to Fresh Start Farms NH. After weighing the cost/benefit, the cooperative decided to pay for a delivery fee. The shift in thinking about the finances of the cooperative in addition to the profit and loss of the individual farmer entrepreneurs is a major change in these farmers financial literacy and an important step forward for the cooperative The 12 beginning farmers met to discuss logistics for participating in the Fresh Start Farms NH "incubator" CSA. The incubator model differs from "advanced" farmers CSA, in that advanced farmers have learned and chosen to grow all of the produce for their allocated shares and take on 100% of the responsibility from production to delivery. In the incubator model, beginning farmers are learning how to grow new crops, favored by American born customers. As a follow up to the CSA workshop , the 12 beginning farmers voted on the crops they want to produce for the CSA. The farm manager will follow up with farmers to provide 'production planning' technical assistance for the crops they have chosen. The market coordinator will "buy in" these crops for the incubator CSA as they come into season, and will provide technical assistance to the farmers on site with post-harvest handling and packing of CSA shares. The farmers will coordinate CSA pick up at the incubator farm sites in Concord, again with technical assistance from the ORIS Market Coordinator staff, as they learn how to use a spreadsheet to track customer pickup. To receive training and technical assistance with formation of their own cooperative that would operate on the same community farm. It is important to note that the New American Farmers Cooperative is an independent, autonomous entity from ORIS. That said, NASAP staff helped to facilitate conversations with the NAF Coop to consider extending their membership and weigh the pros and cons. After deliberation the coop voted and decided to receive member applications from the 5 refugees accessing land in Dunbarton for the purpose of shared land management. The 5 members submitted applications and were all voted in as new members in March, 2018. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? MAJOR STEPS for Sept 2018-Aug 2019 Increase outreach and recruitment to target 8 new beginning farmers to join our program in 2019. Conduct thorough screening to ensure the new participant is a good fit for our program. Provide consistent education, training, and guidance to ensure all 8 new farmers continue in the program for at least 1 year. Conduct outreach in Spanish to Latino communities in Manchester and Concord Increase the number of farmers within the greater Southern New Hampshire region that attend our trainings/workshops to at least 20 additional attendees Conduct multi-lingual outreach in advance of workshops Continue to build strong relationships with other farmer organizations in our region Improve infrastructure at our Incubator Farms Install electricity, permanent dumpster, perimeter fencing, new irrigation system, road repairs, and an improved wash station at our farm in Dunbarton Install additional perimeter fencing, a new wash station, and composting bays at our farm in Concord Develop a food safety plan Draft policies around food safety in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Focus workshops on food safety policies Send ORIS staff to food safety workshops to increase staff knowledge Install new washing station and restroom infrastructure at farms Maintain and strengthen regional partnerships Communicate regularly with other beginning farmer and refugee farmer initiatives in the region. Invite them to visit our farm, attend our workshops
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1) Provide outreach and beginning level training for refugees and immigrants in Concord and Manchester, NH Target numbers: 20-25 farmers with 0 - 2 years experience will participate Actual: 23 farmers participated in beginning farmer trainings. 13 completed the full training course and will access land at ORIS incubator farm sites. Summary Statistics: 38 farmers attended a NASAP orientation to learn about the program 16 farmers completed intake interviews. 23 individual participants attended one or more workshops. 13 refugee farmers with 0-2 years of experience met attendance requirements for course completion as a prerequisite to access ORIS incubator farm site and collective markets in 2018. 12 went on to access land and receive detailed and consistent technical assistance throughout the growing season. Objective 1a)Establish and run incubator farms that will provide land-based training and opportunities for new Americans to grow food ORIS is collaborating with the Merrimack County Conservation District to sublease additional land in Concord at St. Paul's School. The lease is for 4 acres, with opportunities for expansion in 2019 and has potable irrigation water at the farm site. With access to land and water secured, ORIS was able to leverage funding from the NH Association of Conservation Districts to install 12 gravity fed drip irrigation kits for the beginning farmers. ORIS collaborated with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to plant habitat for beneficial insects by planting 10,000 sq. ft of native flowering shrubs along the forest edge of the Dunbarton farm in an effort to promote integrated pest management. In February, 2018, ORIS and participating farmers developed a crop rotation and cover crop plan for the incubator farm sites with technical assistance from USDA NRCS and UNH Cooperative Extension. During the growing season, ORIS assisted in providing electrical power, irrigation, amendment deliveries and tractor services to all farmers participating at both Dunbarton and Concord farms. In August 2018, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension staff toured the Dunbarton farm with ORIS staff to evaluate food safety in harvesting and handling. Observations were compiled and will lead to a comprehensive Food Safety Plan for incorporation into ORIS farm management and educational practices. Objective 2) Provide advanced agricultural training for refugee and immigrant farmers participating in land and market-based training. Target #: 10-12 farmers with 3-5 years experience will participate annually Actual: 14 farmers with 5-7 years of experience participated from Sept 2017-Aug 2018 Target #: 8-12 refugee growers attend advanced trainings and increase knowledge and skills related to vegetable crop production, direct and wholesale markets, and land access Actual: 14 refugee growers attended advanced trainings and increased knowledge and skill related to vegetable and small fruit production, direct and wholesale markets, and whole farm planning. Target #: 8-12 farmers report utilizing new skills to make improvements to their farm businesses Actual: Farmer surveys will be conducted in October 2018 Target #: 8-12 will document their annual cash flow to inform their business plans Actual: Profit and loss will be calculated in October 2018 Objective 3) Support refugee farmers to develop business plans that include long-term land tenure Target #: 8-10 farmers with 5-8 years experience will participate annually Actual: 14 farmers with 5-7 years experience participated in 2018 Cooperative Development: At the beginning of the project period, the New American Farmers Cooperative, which was established in 2016, consisted of 9 refugee farmers. The function of this cooperative was land management. The coop maintains a joint bank account for both shared and individual expenses. In 2017, ORIS maintained land access via a long-term lease in rural Dunbarton, NH and provided a sub-lease to the New American Farmers Coopertive who in turn sublet to 9 members of the coop and an additional 5 refugee farmers who were became coop members. Long term land tenure:At the end of a three year capital campaign, ORIS secured the final donations needed to purchase the 56.8 acre incubator farm site in Dunbarton, in partnership with the Russell Foundation. This will ensure long term land tenure for 14 refugee farmer entrepreneurs and open possibilities for new farm based enterprises. Objective 4) Share resources and best practices with other refugee training programs throughout New England and the country Target #: 20-30 immigrant and refugee farmers and staff from around the region attend a NASAP training each year Actual: 6 beginning farmers from around the region attended NASAP trainings NASAP staff shared the orientation schedule of beginning farmer workshops with a neighboring organization who is beginning to support refugees with land and market access in Nashua, NH. 6 beginning refugee farmers from Nashua attended two NASAP workshops: Introduction to Community Supported Agriculture and Selling at Farmers' Markets. These farmers also attended the USDA Meet and Greet for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, coordinated by ORIS, (see Objective 5). NASAP staff followed up with staff from Grow Nashua to share resources and best practices on training and technical assistance for refugee farmers and to identify opportunities for continued collaboration. It was identified that ORIS could support these 6 farmers with vegetable seedling orders, which NASAP coordinates. Farmers are responsible for payment, ORIS provides technical assistance with filling out the order form, communicating with the local certified organic producer on when plants are needed, and coordinating pickup and distribution. Additionally, ORIS staff met with the executive director of Regen Roots in Nashua, which is coordinating land access with Grow Nashua, to share information on NASAP's farm incubator transfer process. They are just beginning the process of fundraising to purchase a community farm. One of the farmer members of the New American Farmers Cooperative was invited to present on refugee owned farmer cooperatives at the Community Food Systems Conference in Massachusetts, sponsored by Tufts University's New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. NASAP staff and 4 farmers attended this conference to network and share their experiences with participating in a farmer cooperative. At least 6 regional farm programs serving new Americans learned about NASAP's cooperative enterprise model. The NASAP Director attended the BFRDP project directors' meeting in Nashville, TN September 26th-28th, 2017. As the project just began September 1st, ORIS did not present or have a poster. Instead, the PD networked with staff of other beginning farmer training programs to exchange resources and best practices. Objective 5) Connect NASAP and other refugee farmers from the region with local agricultural and other service providers NASAP was awarded an EQIP grant from NRCS in summer 2018. NRCS staff came to the farm for a tour of current infrastructure and advised on best implementation of the grant. UNH Cooperative Extension visited the farm in August 2018 to share observations around food safety with NASAP. There is a follow-up plan to draft food safety policies and incorporate them into workshops. In August 2018, ORIS connected contractors for both road repairs and electricity installation to the NASAP farmers in Dunbarton. These services will ameliorate several issues on the farm. In August 2018, ORIS connected with Good Earth Farms, a refugee farming project that closed. NASAP received some materials and much council and guidance on pitfalls that the program experienced.
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