Success StoryGrow Appalachia provides gardening education with extension partnership



Grow Appalachia provides gardening education with extension partnership

Author: Chadwick Conway

Planning Unit: Knott County CES

Major Program: Home & Consumer Horticulture

Plan of Work: Accessing Nutritious Food

Outcome: Long-Term Outcome

As interest expands with locally grown foods, the assistance for educational programs from the County Agriculture Agent continues to reach new families through Grow Appalachia program. The Grow Appalachia program is a sustainable based gardening program funded through Berea College and is provided to over fifty families in Knott County through the Hindman settlement school since 2012. The program has 58 families enrolled with a quarter of the participants being novice gardeners. With the program, all participants are required to have a soil test analysis which is provided by the Knott County Extension Service; which allows for a basic nutrient of their garden. During this year a series of gardening classes have also been taught at both locations including basic gardening, wildlife control along with disease and insect control. With these educational resources from extension, participants raised over 16,000 pounds of fresh produce this year. The clients involved have really been active in giving back to their community with their abundance of fresh produce. Over 100 families have enjoyed fresh vegetables from these gardens which is around 1,600 individuals. The partnership with Grow Appalachia has been a great program to allow these gardeners the opportunity to provide these families with fresh local healthy food and help save a lot of money. This project along with these activities have really been beneficial in expanding our local food initiative and given several opportunities for extension to help provide more understanding and knowledge of fresh foods for our clients in Knott County.








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