The Incubator Farm Program is a three-year farm business development program for New Americans in Louisville, KY. The program is co-facilitated by the Jefferson Co. Horticulture Agent and Program Manager from Common Earth Gardens, a division of Catholic Charities with support from Navigate Enterprise Services (Louisville Org. that specializes in limited resource/New American business development) and Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD). Participants in the program had to apply to the program with 1 year of growing experience in Kentucky AND have three persons agree to be farm business partners. In January of 2018, 7 farm business teams were formed, representing a total of 30 people from the Somali-Bantu Community in Louisville who were interested in pursuing a small farm business.

Participants agreed to attend bi-weekly classes from February-April on the topics of food safety, crop planning, farm rules, markets and financial literacy (see program overview attached). After successful attendance at these classes, participants were able to rent between 1-3 plots per farm business team at the Millers Lane Incubator Farm Site. The number of plots rented was decided on by the farm business group and approved by the program facilitators based on their business goals for 2018.

During the growing season, farmers received on-farm support from program facilitators, extension specialists and community volunteers. Farmers also were able to receive one-on-one business consulting services from either Navigate Enterprise Services and KCARD. Each farm business group met with their consultant once in the spring, once during market season and once at the end of the growing season to review their sales records and expenses.

At the end of the growing season, five of the seven business teams had successfully accessed and sold produce at ten different farmers markets between April-Sept. and two groups had sold produce wholesale to CommonTable, a culinary training program in Louisville, KY. Successes of the 2018 season were that five of the seven farm business teams learned how to use a table to write down sales records and track business income and expenses using a balance sheet. Farmers also reported an increased confidence in the ability to speak English and learned how to safely wash and store produce. Currently, all 5 of the business teams that completed their sales in 2019 will be invited to re-apply for the second year of the Incubator Farm Program, while the two teams that did not access markets will be asked to re-apply to the first year of the Incubator Farm Program.

The mission of the Incubator Farm Program is to support farmers new to the Louisville food economy in improving business and crop production skills so that they can run an independent farm business.

The goal of the Incubator Farm Program is through a 3 year program, provide the skills, resources, knowledge and connections for New American Farmers to establish and maintain an independent farm business in the Louisville, Kentucky region.

In November, 2018, Common Earth Gardens and the Hort agent of Jefferson County traveled to the National Incubator Farm Field School to present on who to build a successful Incubator Farm Program through partnership.