Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience Individuals from immigrant and refugee communities in Concord, Manchester and Boscawen. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training Opportunities 2024: Opportunities for training and professional development 2023/2024 Tax Filing and Record Keeping 2/23/24 and 3/1/24 - 2 hour workshops 9 farmers attended Farmers received instruction and assistance in tax preparation and advice on filing. Instructors: ORIS staff and UNH Cooperative Extension tax specialist. FSMA Workshops 2/24/24 - 4 hours Incl. Maay Maay translator 25 farmers attended across two sessions. Instructor: ORIS staff Source: New Entry Farming project "Food Safety Guide" and food safety resources Food Safety Mini Workshop 3/15/24 - 4 hours; 3/22/24 - 4 hours 7 farmers attended across both sessions Instructor: ORIS staff PSA Training 3/20/24 - all day English and Maay Maay 15 farmers attended Instructor: ORIS staff and Maay Maay translator/trainer PSA Training 4/19/24 & 4/20/24 - 6 hours each day English and Kinyarwanda 15 farmers attended Instructor: ORIS staff and Kinyarwanda translator Pre Season Harvest Trainings 4/30/24,5/2/24, and 5/3/24 - 2 hours each 20+ farmers attended, reviewed harvest and wash station procedures and standards Instructors: ORIS staff Integrated Pest Management 7/15/24, 7/22/24, 7/29/24 9 farmers participated in an overview of IPM practices and procedures Farmers purchased shares of pesticides as well as applicator equipment. Instructor: Farm Manager Professional development All farm program staff received professional development on food safety and pest management through online classes, attended the NOFA New England Conference, New England Fruit and Vegetable Conference, NH Food Systems Statewide Gathering and other online and team training activities. Team members have also begun working with New Entry staff on developing resources for pest management. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The project focused on community outreach through clergies and community leaders to increase participants in the program. We also collaborated with our Grow Nashua and Manchester Grow to do outreach. The three organizations held eight informal sessions and distributed over 100 flyers about the NASAP program and NASAP farmers paths. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the third year of the project, ORIS will focus on: Providing technical assistance and training in food safety and FSMA regulations; Exploring additional market opportunities for farmers; Leverage the outreach and program coordinator role to develop connections with immigrant communities who are not currently within our reach; Further develop curriculum for farmers who are advancing in skill-levels; Expand focus on supporting farmer independence and growth.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS) BFRDP project has the long-term goal of increasing refugee and immigrant beginning farmer success in New Hampshire. In the third year of this project, ORIS has continued to pursue significant outreach, recruitment and training activities to bring in new members to its incubator farming program. The 2023-2024 time period has also seen significant changes in program staffing, including a new outreach and program coordinator, returning farm manager and new program director. Participants are provided with access to small plots of land (.25 acre to 1.5 acres) and the technical assistance and training from our staff. ORIS has made the following progress toward our three-year project outcomes: Objective 1: Expand refugee and immigrants who participate in incubator farming from 30 to 200 beginning farmers over three years by expanding new farmer outreach activities in New Hampshire's three largest cities: Manchester, Concord, and Nashua. For the last three years of the project ORIS has continued working with project partners Manchester Grows and Grow Nashua with a goal to reach out to new program participants. Culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach was conducted in several community venues. Twenty Manchester Grows information sessions were held between September 19, 2023 and July 8, 2024 with 701 total attendees from the cities of Manchester, Concord, and Nashua. All attendees were immigrants and refugees, representing the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Keny a, Bhutan and Sudan. The information sessions were 2 to 2.5 long hours and explained about the NASAP program, requirement to participate and the expectations. The 2024 season saw the return of sixty-one farmers from the previous year, seven of whom were in their second year participating in our program. Thanks to the partnership with Manchester Grows and the work of our Outreach & Program Coordinator we have recruited seven new farmers into the program for 2024, bringing the total number of participating farmers to sixty-eight. Through the efforts of our outreach & program coordinator we have determined that the distance to our farms with open plots has proved to be an obstacle for increased participation from new recruits. Many interested persons have limited or no access to transportation outside of Manchester or Concord. Objective 2: Enhance these beginning farmers' knowledge and skills in mixed fruit and vegetable production, farm business and financial management, and food hub participation to demonstrate measurable, year-over-year increases in household revenue from farming. ORIS staff have focused on bringing greater training and technical assistance to farmers in the areas of food safety and FSMA compliance. This was a direct result of staff observation and farmer requests. It is the goal of the program to provide farmers with a greater understanding of food safety requirements, and a better ability to meet the expectations of wholesale and retail markets. During the winter and early spring of 2024, staff provided workshops on the PSA and FSMA requirements, including in person translation into Kinyarwanda and Maay Maay. Staff supported these efforts by making major upgrades to farm wash stations equipment and supplies, including more sinks, easily sanitized drying racks, sanitizer sprays and testers and additional on-site technical assistance. Additionally, ORIS staff instituted new pre-season on farm season kick off workshops. These workshops included reviewing pre and post harvest practices, wash station and food safety procedures and standards, as well as new soil testing data. Continuing from previous years, staff assisted farmers in making bulk and ongoing purchases of seeds, fertilizer, supplies and more from, among others, NOFA New England, Johnny's, Brookdale Fruit Farm and seedlings from Spring Ledge Farm. Farmers were provided with two workshop opportunities to review tax filing and record keeping with a professor from UNH. Staff also developed a new Pest Management Program to assist farmers in purchasing organic pest control methods and applying them to their plots. This will be expanded and fine-tuned next year to address continuing pest control issues our farmers have been experiencing. Objective 3: Facilitate the financial sustainability of at least 50 farmers by offering incubator resources and tools that improve production scale and efficiency and diversify customer types. ORIS staff have worked to continue to offer and expand resources and tools for farmer income growth and diversification. The 2024 season saw the continuation of wholesale contracts for farmers through the New Hampshire Food Bank, distributing farmers goods to fourteen charities and kitchens across New Hampshire. This, in conjunction with the Fresh Start Food Hub wholesale contracts, has allowed more farmers to participate and receive a steady income. Outside of the BFRDA grant, additional sales avenues including the Morning Star Farmers Market which occurred multiple times a week beginning in late June. This provides farmers with an outlet to sell their produce to the community and take advantage of ORIS' access to EBT payments, including the Double Up Food Bucks program through the State of New Hampshire.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Individuals from immigrant and refugee communities in Concord, Manchester and Boscawen. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?ORIS team provided 75 hours of classroom and practical training to the beginning farmers style detailed as follows: Post Harvest and Handling 4/14/23 two, 2.5 -hour workshops 14-min video translated in different language (Kinyarwanda and Swahili) 36 farmers attended in two sessions Instructors: ORIS Staff Source Curriculum: New Entry Sustainable Farming Project's "An Entrepreneur's Guide to Farming in Massachusetts" (Hashley, J. 2014). Food Safety Hygiene 2/23 ,2.5 -hours 5 min video in Kinyarwanda 33 farmers attended in multiple session Instructor: ORIS staff Source :New Entry farming project "Food safety guide" and Food safety resources Production Planning and Seed Orders 1/13/23 2-hours 33 farmers participated Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: NOFA-NH "Cost of Production Project"; UNH Cooperative Extension On-Farm Record-Keeping 2/17/23: two 2-hour workshop sessions 18 farmers participated in workshops; received invoice books to use for the season Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Southside Community Land Trust "Recordkeeping 1: Crop Planning and Planting Records for FSMA Compliance" (Demi, C. 2014). Greenhouse Seedling Production 2/22/23 accompanied by 2 hours of practical demonstration 16 farmers attended the workshop Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: UNH Cooperative Extension "Greenhouse Production Calculators" and "Scouting & Managing Greenhouse Nutrient Problems" (J Njue, G. 2017). Integrated Pest Management 3/5/23: 2-hour session for 10 farmers led by ORIS staff 7/17/23: 1 hours hour on-site training Source : New England vegetable management Guide 2020-2021 Edition Small Fruit Production and Pruning 4/9/23: two 2-hour workshops for different groups of 6 farmers Instructors: UNH Small Fruit Specialist and ORIS Staff Source: UNH Cooperative Extension "2019-20 New England Small Fruit Management Guide" (Schoeman, S. 2019). Tax Filing and Record Keeping 3/3/23: 2-hour workshop 16 farmers attended on both cities Instructors: UNH Cooperative Extension tax specialist Risk Management 4/28/23: 2 hour classroom training 17 farmers attended Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Farm Service Agency - NAP forms and training materials Food Safety and Cold Storage 519/23: 2 hour on site training on cold storage 6/16/23: 1 hour practical workshop 24 farmers attended in total Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Cornell Cooperative Extension - "Food Safety and Storage" Post-Harvest and Handling 4/14/23: two 2-hour workshops 13 farmers attended Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: ISED Solutions - "Harvest and Post-Harvest Handling Standard Operating Procedures" (Cultivating Communities, 2017). Growing for Food Hubs only 3/17/2023: 2-hour workshops 33 farmers attended in total Instructors: ORIS staff Source: New England Food Hub Network - "Exploring Options to Enhance Food Hub Collaboration & Increase New England Farm to Institution Sales" (Karp, K. 2017) NASAP Orientation Workshop 2/10/2023 and 3/7/2023 2.5 -hours workshop 38 farmers attended in total Instructors: ORIS staff Efficient Harvesting and 4 key Area of food safety 5/6/23 32 farmers attednded Instructors ORIS staff Source: Food safety Resources Land Tenure 3/31/2023 8 farmers attended Instructors: Land For Good Growing for wholesale contracts 3/10/23 2 farmers attended Instructors: NOFA NH In addition to the classroom and practical training, the ORIS team, including some who are not funded by BFRD, provided over 1,200 hours of technical assistance and support. Between October 2022 through April 2023 the team focused on the following projects: Closing down the season Project Evaluation Bulk orders coordination Production and marketing evaluation Seed and seedling orders Finding and negotiating contracts with Global Village and NH Food Bank Greenhouses repair and maintenance Helping farmers with tax documentation Preparing Profit and loss Sheet for each farmers Workshops and outreach The months between April and September 2023 the team focused with the following support projects Tilling the land Plot allocation for the farmers Practical training in greenhouses T/A on planting Finishing and testing walk-in cooler Marketing Post harvest and handling Wholesale deliveries Managing farmers market Running EBT Green houses construction Farm Maintenance Professional development All farm program staff received professional development on food safety through online classes, attended New England Fruit and Vegetable workshops and farm stress management workshops through UNH. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project focused on community outreach through clergies and community leaders to increase participants in the program. We also collaborated with our Grow Nashua and Manchester Grow to do outreach. The three organizations held eight informal sessions and distributed over 100 flyers about the NASAP program and NASAP farmers paths. ? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the third year of the project, ORIS will focus on: Providing technical assistance and training in food safety and FSMA regulations; Exploring additional market opportunities for farmers; Leverage the outreach and program coordinator role to develop connections with immigrant communities who are not currently within our reach; Further develop curriculum for farmers who are advancing in skill-levels; Expand focus on supporting farmer independence and growth.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the second year of this project, ORIS has made implemented significant outreach, recruitment, and training efforts to bring in new members to its incubator farming program, which enhances farming successes and sustainability by providing training and technical assistance that enables new Americans to develop the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to make informed farming decisions for a New Hampshire farm. We worked with 52 socially disadvantaged, limited resource beginning farmers, specifically refugees and immigrants from 9 countries who have been farming for less than ten years, or have never previously farmed. These individuals usually arrive in the United States with a background in farming and are eager to make a connection to the land in their new homes. Our programmes provide farmers with access to a small (0.25 acre to 1.5 Acres) plot of land to begin growing crops. This year, our program helped more than 68 New Americans learn about growing in the United States, how to grow "ethnic crops" that are hard to grow in cold climates, land access in the U.S., and how to take steps toward making farming a profitable business while creating food security for their family and community. ORIS has made the following progress toward our three-year project outcomes: 1. We have retained 22 beginning farmer participants in the training program for the 2023 farming season that began with us. We retained 18 community gardeners and we have inceased 17 community gardeners on our incubator site in Dunbarton and Concord (goal: 90 farmers retained for more than one year.) Others remained in the program but have farmed for 10 years or more. 2. We provided 57 beginning farmers with a minimum of 12 hours of training and 18 hours of technical assistance to improve their knowledge and skill on production marketing and season extension (goal: 170 farmers) 3. We trained 33 beginning farmers about how to sell their crops, with 33 earning at least $1,000 during the first year (goal: 128) 4. 33 beginning farmers have provided documentable evidence of improved financial sustainability resulting from participating in project training and technical assistance this reporting period. Objective 1: Expand refugee and immigrants who participate in incubator farming from 30 to 200 beginning farmers over three years by expanding new farmer outreach activities in New Hampshire's three largest cities: Manchester, Concord, and Nashua. For the last two years of the project ORIS has continued working with project partners Manchester Grows and Grow Nashua with a goal to reach out to new program participants. Culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach was conducted in several community venues. Four information sessions were held between January 31 and March 24 with 72 total attendees from the cities of Manchester, Concord, Nashua and Lowell, Massachusetts. All attendees were immigrants and refugees, representing the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Bhutan and Sudan. The information sessions were 2 to 2.5 long hours and explained about the NASAP program, requirement to participate and the expectations. 38 of the attendees completed their applications to join the program, and 18 of those individuals cultivated on two farm sites in 2023 Orientation Workshop for the new program participants the following topics crop calendar for North East introduction to direct to consumer sales and markets, and information on how to order quality seeds to meet production goals Information on seed and seedling orders including partners and sources to order ethnic crops. The curriculum for this workshop is developed from ISED Solution, Refugee Farmers Teaching Handbook, and ORIS's own materials designed to meet NASAP program needs Over 50% of the interested farmers who attended the introduction workshop joined the program this year and cultivated ethnic crops for their family and friends. All of them are looking forward to learning more and joining the markets. We anticipate to retain 95% of the new participants for the year 2024. The primary factor which contributed to the success of new particants joining the NASAP program was aggressive outreach to the refugee communities through community leaders, church clergies and other community partners. ORIS was also able to cultivate 4.5 more acres and set up a climate smart demonstration farm; the additional 4.5 acres was part of 11 acres we acquired prior to the 2022 growing season. The successeful production motivated new participants to join the program. Objective 2: Enhance these beginning farmers' knowledge and skills in mixed fruit and vegetable production, farm business and financial management, and food hub participation to demonstrate measurable, year-over-year increases in household revenue from farming. During the second year of the project, ORIS trained a total of 68 beginning farmers which included new participants. A total number of 30 workshops was provided on 18 topics for a total of 75 hours. These classroom and practical workshops ran between January 13 and May 20, 2023. The topics included: Post harvest and handling, risk management, greenhouse and seedling management, financial farm records, tax filing, food safety, personal hygiene at the farm, growing for food hub only, growing for wholesale contract, pest and disease management, farm wildlife intrusion, small fruit production, land tenure, farm and market technology, efficient harvesting and a NASAP orientation workshop. Out of all 68 participating farmers and gardeners in our program this year, all participated in workshops and received 1:1 technical assistance from the NASAP team and partners. Ten were able to sell produce wholesale to ORIS's Fresh Start Food Hub. Twenty-six sold produce to the NH Food Bank on ethnic wholesale contract and to Global Village business enterprise on wholesale contracts. Additionally, our farmers are selling produce at twelve farmers markets in New Hampshire and one farmers market in Massachusetts. During this reporting period our farmers who have been in the program between 1-9 years have sold approximately $77,872 by September 30, 2024. New farmer participants do not sell during their first year, as they are focused on preparing their land, learning new skills (including food safety), and providing produce for self-consumption. Many of them are looking forward to making sales in the 2024 season. Objective 3: Facilitate the financial sustainability of at least 50 farmers by offering incubator resources and tools that improve production scale and efficiency and diversify customer types. ORIS continues to take steps to invest in resources made available to our beginning farmers. Here are some of the steps we have taken and investment we have made: Hired a new outreach coordinator who speaks in 5 different languages from the community we are serving. He is able to to help transate training materials, explain the importance of food safety, and help other NASAP staff with farmers markets and on farm records as well as discussing program needs and expectations. The team completed the walk-in cold storage container which is operational and helping our farmers manage wholesale orders. The cooler has improved food safety, reduced farmers' stress on harvesting and selling the same day, and improved efficiency. From outside the BFRD grant ORIS has established a 4 acre climate-smart demonstration farm with an artesian well, power and 7 high tunnels for season extension, including funding on climate smart practices technical assistance. Secured two large wholesale contracts for our farmers with NH Food Bank and Global Village Organization Opened and operated a farm stand in the town of Boscawen. We anticipate that the investments and extensive hands-on training on production and food safety as well as season extension will increase poduction and income by 50%.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:ORIS's incubator farmer program is targeted to individuals from refugee and immigrant communities in Nashua, Manchester, and Concord, NH. These cities are New Hampshire's largest and most diverse communities. Over our history, we have found that many new arrivals in NH - particularly refugees - come with a background in farming in their home countries. After being forced from their home due to violence, spending years in refugee camps, and finally arriving in NH with little to their names, refugees find the experience of growing their own food, particularly ethnic crops, cathartic. Our program currently work with 52 refugee and immigrant beginning farmers from 9 countries, primarily from the African continent. This project specifically targets those who have less than 10 years of experience in farming, and aims to bring them additional skills and adapt their farming knowledge to the New England climate. Most of our participants are still learning spoken English and very few can read or write. Most participants are from countries where small farming is done for subsistence or as part of an informal economy, and do not have experience with record-keeping or government regulation of farming activities. These differences making it very difficult to adapt to American farming environments without significant, culturally- and linguistically-appropriate supports. Changes/Problems:While there are no major problems or delays anticipated to have a significant impact on the project activities or budget at this time, it is worth noting three factors that are constraints that our team is actively working to mitigate or adapt to in order to keep the project moving forward as planned: First, COVID continues to present challenges to the program even at this stage, as farmers can spend several weeks at home sick with the virus. Depending on the time of year, they either miss critical trainings, or critical time managing their crops. This can lead to loss of income throughout the season. Second, land access and management will be a major challenge for this project. ORIS does not require any program participants to move off the land assigned to them in the program, unless they are out of compliance with program and conduct requirements. This is because so many of our participants have experienced traumatic upheaval from their original homes (and in many cases farms). But, that also means that ORIS continues to manage all the land for any participants, no matter how long they have been in the program. To acquire and manage land requires very significant resources (human and financial) - even when leasing. 200 program participants will require at least 50 acres of land, with each participant cultivating ΒΌ acre. Our current footprint is about 24 acres, and our current staffing level makes management of that amount of property already difficult. Exploring innovative ways of managing the land utilized by the program will be key to reaching this goal. Finally, witha goal of having at least 100 participants make sales totaling $1,000 over three years as part of this project, a major hurdle that we are planning for are the requirements for FSMA as it is now being implemented. These requirements are critically important to farmers success in a number of different ways, but are also incredibly difficult for limited English, limited literacy farmers to follow. Separate from this BFRD grant, our program has received a Food Safety Outreach Program grant to help us invest in this learning for our new farmers. We are looking forward to seeing the impact of that program on this one, as that team will develop new tools and trainings to try to ensure that our farmers are able to meet the burdens of record-keeping associated with food safety requirements. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The ORIS team provided 44 hours of classroom-style trainings for beginning farmers as detailed below: Whole Farm Planning 1/15/22 and 1/18/22: two, 2-hour workshops 24 farmers attended Instructors: ORIS Staff Source Curriculum: New Entry Sustainable Farming Project's "An Entrepreneur's Guide to Farming in Massachusetts" (Hashley, J. 2014). Production Planning and Seed Orders 1/18/22 and 3/16/22: two 1-hour workshops followed by one-on-one technical assistance 42 farmers participated Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: NOFA-NH "Cost of Production Project"; UNH Cooperative Extension On-Farm Record-Keeping 2/26/22: two 2-hour workshop sessions 44 farmers participated in workshops; received invoice books to use for the season Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Southside Community Land Trust "Recordkeeping 1: Crop Planning and Planting Records for FSMA Compliance" (Demi, C. 2014). Greenhouse Seedling Production 1/22/22 and 3/23/22: two 2-hour sessions with in-greenhouse demonstrations 22 farmers attended the workshop (geared toward advanced farmers) Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: UNH Cooperative Extension "Greenhouse Production Calculators" and"Scouting & Managing Greenhouse Nutrient Problems" (J Njue, G. 2017). Integrated Pest Management 2/5/22: 2 hour session for 22 farmers led by ORIS staff 6/26/22: 4 hour on-site training with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Specialist attended by 14 farmers to focus on field training and pest scouting practices Sources: ISED Solutions "Seedbank and Weed Management" (Redfield, A. 2017); UNH Cooperative Extension "Bees and Their Habitats in Four New EnglandStates" (Dibble, A. 2018) and UNH Cooperative Extension "Spotted WingDrosophila IPM Weekly Scouting Reports" Small Fruit Production 3/24/22: 3 hour on-farm workshop on our newly leased 2-acre blue berries orchard; attended by 8 farmers 4/9/22: two 2 hour workshops for different groups - 36 total attendees Instructors: UNH Small Fruit Specialist and ORIS Staff Source: UNH Cooperative Extension "2019-20 New England Small FruitManagement Guide" (Schoeman, S. 2019). Farm Business and Financial Management 1/3/22: 2 hour workshop including financial literacy 101 and agricultural ESL 32 farmers attended on both cities Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Sustainable Agricultural Research Education (SARE) - "Building a Sustainable Business" (Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, 2003). Financial Risk Management and Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) 1/20/22: 2 hour classroom training 21 farmers attended Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Farm Service Agency - NAP forms and training materials Food Safety and Cold Storage 3/12/22: 2 hour site visit for farmers to the Fresh Start Food Hub to understand the role of a food hub in their food sales 3/18/22: two 2 hour workshops, classroom style 24 farmers attended in total Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: Cornell Cooperative Extension - "Food Safety and Storage" Post-Harvest Handling, Packing and Transporting Produce 3/12/22: two 2-hour workshops Total of 24 farmers attended Instructors: ORIS Staff Source: ISED Solutions - "Harvest and Post-Harvest Handling Standard Operating Procedures" (Cultivating Communities, 2017). Growing for Food Hubs- Best Practices 1/15/2022: two 2-hour workshops 36 farmers attended in total Instructors: ORIS staff Source: New England Food Hub Network - "Exploring Options to Enhance Food Hub Collaboration & Increase New England Farm to Institution Sales" (Karp, K. 2017) Additionally, our team provided over 1,000 hours of technical assistance across staff funded by this grant and others who are not funded by this grant. For the months of June through October, the Outreach Coordinator, Project Director, and Farm Manager spent the majority of their time on-farm and at markets with participants to provide TA on post-harvest handling, packing and transporting produce for farmers markets and wholesale, integrated pest management, farmers market and farm stand payment processing, including EBT use and record-keeping, NAP insurance claims, and other topics as they were pertinent to participants throughout the season. Finally, the Farm Manager and Outreach Coordinator received professional development training on fruit pruning and orchard management from UNH Cooperative extension to enable them to help participants take over the blueberries and other fruits on our newly leased site. The Cooperative Extension also provided a two-day training for ORIS staff on on-farm record keeping and tax preparation for farmers. This training allowed ORIS staff to provide TA to farmers on filing their taxes - a difficult task even when English is your first language! How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Community-based outreach is a significant focus of this project as we aim to increase the number of participants in our program. For this first year of our project, we worked with local community garden programs - Manchester Grows and Grow Nashua - to connect with those individuals already gardening that would be interested in utilizing a larger plot of land and exploring selling their goods. These groups helped ORIS spread the word at community meetings and among those participating in their gardening activities already. Together, these two organizations help more than 15 meetings and distributed more than 200 flyers about the NASAP program. ORIS itself held 10 informal sessions to share about our project between November 2021 and March 2022. These sessions included meetings with church groups, birthday parties, and other cultural events. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During this second year of the project, ORIS will: Continue our focus on outreach and expanding participation in our program, by strengthening our relationship with project partners and coordinating trainings and events with each Increase outreach activities by ORIS staff to refugee communities through religious leaders, attending cultural celebrations, and embracing indigenous/ethnic foods Emphasize food safety and FSMA regulations in training and technical assistance activities so that farmers can continue to safely, and legally sell their products Install wash station at our new Concord farm to ensure participants at that site meet food safety standards Recruit at least 15 new farmers for to join the program for year 2023 and maintain at least 45 of the 52 current participants Strengthen relationships with land owners of the leased properties for our incubator farms Increase available acreage to create room for new beginning farmer participants Test smaller-group trainings, and provide more opportunities for "just in time" training throughout the season Match staff with small groups of farmers to be the "go-to" TA provider to build deeper relationships between new producers and our team Formalize a system of peers to peer farmer trainings by pairing more advanced farmers with new farmers on beginner level.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS) BFRDP project has the long-term goal to increase refugee and immigrant beginning farmer success in New Hampshire. In the first year of this project, ORIS has made implemented significant outreach, recruitment, and training efforts to bring in new members to its incubator farming program, which enhances farming successes and sustainability by providing training and technical assistance that enables new Americans to develop the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to make informed farming decisions for a New Hampshire farm. We worked with 52 socially disadvantaged, limited resource beginning farmers, specifically refugees and immigrants from9countries who have been farming for less than ten years, or have never previously farmed. These individuals usually arrive in the United States with a background in farming and are eager to make a connection to the land in their new homes. Our programming provides farmers with access to a small (0.25 acre) plot of land to begin growing crops. This year, our program helped more than 50 New Americans learn about their new homes through the soil and climate, to grow "ethnic crops" that are hard to access in the U.S., and to take steps toward making farming a profitable business opportunity for their future lives here in the United States. ORIS has made the following progress toward our three-year project outcomes: We retained 16 beginning farmer participants in the training program for the 2022 farming season that began with us before this project started (goal: 90 farmers retained for more than one year.) Others remained in the program but have farmed 10 years or more. We provided 44 beginning farmers with a minimum of 5 hours of training and 10 hours of technical assistance to improve their knowledge, skills, or techniques. (goal: 170 farmers) We trained 27 beginning farmers about the how to sell their crops, with 27 earning at least $1,000 during the first year (goal: 128) 27 beginning farmers provided documentable evidence of improved financial sustainability resulting from participating in project training and technical assistance (goal: 50) Objective 1: Expand refugee and immigrants who participate in incubator farming from 30 to200 beginning farmers over three years by expanding new farmer outreach activities in New Hampshire's three largest cities: Manchester, Concord, and Nashua. During the first year of this project, ORIS worked with project partners Manchester Grows and Grow Nashua to support its efforts to reach out to new program participants. Culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach was conducted in several community venues. 4 information sessions were held between January 31 and March 24 with 52 total attendees. All attendees were immigrants and refugees, representing the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zimbabwe. The information sessions were 2.5 hours and explained the program, what we offer to participants, and the requirements for participation. 37 of the information session attendees completed their applications to join the program, and ultimately 27 of those individuals cultivated a farm site in 2022. Orientation for the new program participants covered the crop calendar for New Hampshire, an introduction to direct to consumer sales and markets, and information on how to order quality seeds to meet production goals. The curriculum for this workshop is developed from ISED Solution, Refugee Farmers Teaching Handbook, and ORIS's own materials designed to meet program needs. We were pleased that over half of the original attendees at introductory sessions followed through to join the program and cultivate for the season. We anticipated that we would retain closer to 30% of attendees from the original sessions. One of the primary contributing factors to making this year successful under this objective was land acquisition. ORIS secured an additional 11 acres of land prior to the 2022 growing season, ensuring that we had land to offer new enrollees. Objective 2: Enhance these beginning farmers' knowledge and skills in mixed fruit andvegetable production, farm business and financial management, and food hub participation to demonstrate measurable, year-over-year increases in household revenue from farming. During the first year of the project, ORIS trained a total of 44 beginning farmers (including our new participants) through workshops on 12 topics for a total of 44 hours. These classroom style workshops ran between January 15 and June 26, 2022. Topics included: whole farm planning, on-farm record keeping, integrated pest management, small fruit production, farm business and financial management, agricultural ESL, risk management, food safety and cold storage, and market participation. Of our 52 participating farmers and gardeners this year, all participated in workshops and received 1:1 technical assistance from our team. 38 were able to sell produce wholesale to ORIS's Fresh Start Food Hub and/or direct to consumer at farmers' markets and farm stands. Many of our newest farmers sold a couple hundred dollars' worth of produce, while those that have been in our program for 1-9 years sold more than $70,000 in 2022. While some new participants didn't sell crops during this first year, they expressed excitement to return in 2023 and to make sales in the future. Objective 3: Facilitate the financial sustainability of at least 50 farmers by offeringincubator resources and tools that improve production scale and efficiency and diversifycustomer types. ORIS took significant steps to increase the resources available to beginning farmers this year. First, with support from this grant, we were able to hire an Outreach and Program Coordinator. This role is staff by a Congolese individual who is able to discuss the program, training materials, and deliver on-farm technical assistance in the languages spoken by many of the farmers who were added to the program this year, as well as about half of those already in the program. These languages include: Kinyarwanda, Lingala, French, and Kiswahili. Having a staff member that is able to provide translation between farmers and the remainder of our staff is critical in participants understanding the lessons provided and being able to implement them on the farm. Additionally, the team sourced materials to build a cold storage container at one of the new farm sites. This will allow farmers to safely store their produce after harvest in order to coordinate sales to our Fresh Start Food Hub, at farmers markets and farm stands, and other vendors as they are able. Outside of resources supplied by this grant, ORIS secured a lease (5 years, renewable) on another plot of land for program activities from a landowner retiring from farming it himself. This plot includes 2 acres of fruit, primarily blueberries, already established. During this year, ORIS managed the land, with significant hands-on training and TA opportunities for our participants to engage with this new potential revenue stream. Throughout the remaining project period, we anticipate having our participants take over the blueberry production and sales to make it an independent effort.
Publications
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