Author: Kim Angel
Planning Unit: Jackson County CES
Major Program: Agriculture
Plan of Work: Agriculture Production and Marketing
Outcome: Initial Outcome
During the 2020 Global Pandemic, a need for the ability to grow food locally was realized. With a majority of today’s U.S. consumers three to four generations removed from agriculture, many do not have a good level of knowledge about agriculture and food production. Jackson County 4-H partnered with a local farmer and his wife who sell produce at local farmers markets to provide a greenhouse program to Jackson County Youth. Ten attendees gathered at the greenhouse for the first session to help transplant the tomatoes, tour the greenhouse, learn about other crops being grown on the farm, and learn the importance of bee hives to crop production. Successive meetings were conducted virtually from the greenhouse on a weekly basis until harvest of the tomatoes. Youth had the opportunity to harvest the tomatoes themselves in the greenhouse. In a questionnaire at the end of the program 100% of youth indicated that they gained an understanding of the role of agriculture in food production and that 4-H is a place where they can figure things out for themselves. Some attendees who participated are in the process of writing grants to obtain their own greenhouse. The owners of the greenhouse offered a plot of land to 4-H to be used for growing watermelons that can be sold at the Jackson County Farmer’s Market and one of the parents of the participants volunteered to lead a gardening club in 2021. Due to the success of this program, Jackson County 4-H has also partnered with Jackson County High School to assist with an AgTech community farm where food will be grown locally year around, improving the local food supply by growing high yield, low impact hydroponic and LED growing systems that produce fresh vegetables in a shipping container. This program will increase local fresh food supply and address food insecurity, provide critical economic and workforce development to high school students, and offer community education in food growing systems.
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