Recipient Organization
PROVIDENCE FARM COLLECTIVE CORP.
502 JEWETT HOLMWOOD RD
EAST AURORA,NY 140522149
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The long-term goal of PFC's BFRDP project is to empower refugee, immigrant, and Black beginning farmers with needed resources, knowledge, skills, and opportunities to enter and continuously improve their successes in farming by refining PFC's beginning farmer training initiatives in collaboration with Cornell partners. According to feedback and a survey, the most common methods for effective learning identified by refugee, immigrant, and Black beginning farmers are personalized, hands-on, and language-adaptive demonstration in the field and teaching in the classroom, plus the use of visual resources. Farmers expressed needing to learn about livestock and crop farming plus farm business and financial management. These farmers prioritize building inter- and intra-community relationships plus earning income through farming. Included in their definitions of success for their farms are being able to feed their communities and connect with their culture. Thus, our primary objectives are to a) increase PFC staff knowledge and capacity so staff can better meet the expressed learning needs of refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers and b) empower such farmers to enter or improve their successes in farming through access to land, personalized education, and market opportunities while building community, nourishing their communities, and connecting with their culture.To accomplish its long-term goal, the project will employ methods in which farmers are supported in creating annual individualized education plans and partners at Cornell train PFC staff on topic basics. Through farmers' education plans and increased staff knowledge and capacity, PFC staff will better provide basic personalized education and mentorship to farmers that is hands-on, language-adapted, and one-on-one or small-group. Partners will likewise reference farmers' education plans to deliver advanced instruction and technical assistance, as well as support curricula refinement and production of visual learning materials. PFC farmland and relationships with markets serving low-income, low-access communities will be leveraged throughout the program. In total, 200 under-resourced farmers will be served and four staff members will be trained.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of PFC's BFRDP project is to empower refugee, immigrant, and Black beginning farmers with needed resources, knowledge, skills, and opportunities to enter and continuously improve their successes in farming by refining PFC's beginning farmer training initiatives in collaboration with Cornell partners. This includes goalsto a) increase PFC staff knowledge and capacity so staff can better meet the expressed learning needs of refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers and b) empower such farmers to enter or improve their successes in farming through access to land, personalized education, and market opportunities while building community, nourishing their communities, and connecting with their culture.To accomplish its long-term goal, the project will employ methods in which farmers are supported in creating annual individualized education plans and partners at Cornell train PFC staff on topic basics. Through farmers' education plans and increased staff knowledge and capacity, PFC staff will better provide basic personalized education and mentorship to farmers that is hands-on, language-adapted, and one-on-one or small-group. Partners will likewise reference farmers' education plans to deliver advanced instruction and technical assistance, as well as support curricula refinement and production of visual learning materials. PFC farmland and relationships with markets serving low-income, low-access communities will be leveraged throughout the program. In total, 200 under-resourced farmers will be served and four staff members will be trained. Through mentorship from partners, equip PFC staff with professional development opportunities to improve their knowledge of and ability to instruct farmers on basic livestock, crop farming, and farm business management. In turn, PFC staff will educate partners on the cultures of PFC farmers ("Train the Trainer"; Priority Areas 1, 3 & 9).4 PFC staff members will be provided at least 50 total hours of mentorship and professional development from partners.4 staff members will create and complete individualized educational plans based on their roles, interests, existing areas of knowledge, and needs of farmers.3 partners will increase their cultural competency from working with PFC staff.Provide beginning refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers personalized hands-on, one-on-one or small-group, and language adaptive basic education, training, and technical assistance on sustainable livestock and specialty crop farming (Priority Areas 1 & 6).18 or more farmers will be supported in the creation and completion of annual individualized education plans (note: plans may also include farm entrepreneurship, business, and financial management) .5 or more farmers will be instructed by PFC staff and partners on sustainable livestock operations and management.40 farmers will be assisted by PFC staff and partners on techniques for growing diversified and culturally-relevant crops in the Northeast.Provide beginning refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers small-group and personalized language adaptive farm entrepreneurship, business, and financial management training (Priority Area 3).20 farmers will be educated by PFC staff on small farm business operations and management.15 farmers will be supported by PFC staff and partners in the creation of an essential business document, including but not limited to an enterprise budget, business plan, loan application, or business entity filing paperwork.Support beginning refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers with accessing markets, including those serving low-income, low-access communities to increase and diversify farm revenue while improving nutrition security (Priority Areas 7 & 15).40 farmers will be supported in selling produce to PFC for aggregation and distribution to Buffalo food pantries or via wholesale accounts or farmers markets on Buffalo's East or West Sides.Help beginning refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers incrementally improve farm yields and revenue each year of the three-year training program to increase preparedness for sustainably starting a farm business operation (BFRDP program goal).Through at least 250 hours of in-the-field, one-on-one technical assistance from PFC staff and partner experts annually, PFC farmers will learn to identify and enact opportunities for continuous improvement of their farm operations.
Project Methods
The project will employ methods in which farmers and staff are supported in creating annual individualized education plans and partners at Cornell train PFC staff on topic basics identified in farmer and staff education plans. Individualized education plans will articulate a farmer's and staff member's goals for the year, as well as identify specific farm education topics of the greatest interest to them. Both farmers and staff members will generate tasks with deadlines that are necessary to completing the plan to ensure accountability. Through the education plans and increased staff knowledge and capacity, PFC staff will get the training they need and better provide basic personalized education and mentorship to farmers that is hands-on, language-adapted, and one-on-one or small-group. Partners will likewise reference farmers' education plans to deliver advanced instruction and technical assistance, as well as support curricula refinement and production of visual learning materials. PFC farmland and relationships with markets serving low-income, low-access communities will be leveraged throughout the program. PFC's project is relevant to the goals of the BFRDP program as it will focus on training staff and supporting farmers in the priority topic areas of basic livestock and crop farming practices, entrepreneurship and business training, natural resource management and planning, and diversification in marketing. The project is likewise relevant to NIFA's goals as it will enhance human diversity, equity and inclusion in agriculture, as well as contribute to post-pandemic economic revitalization and nutritional security in Buffalo's low-income, low-access communities. Overall, by supporting refugee, immigrant, and Black farmers in starting and improving small farm businesses that utilize ecologically responsible practices, this project will contribute to the sustainability, resilience, and equity of agriculture in WNY.?Our project's methods are proactively designed to minimize farmers not accessing the educational and technical assistance support they need due to their schedules by training PFC staff. PFC staff have far more flexibility and nimbleness in their schedules to meet with farmers in accordance with their schedules and are at the farm seven days a week compared to Cornell partners who have a much shorter, specific window of time for meeting with farmers at the farm.