It's time to sign up for the 2017 session of the Farm and Food Teen Training program!
Orientation is Monday, January 16th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Greeneville. Any interested teens in middle school or high school can apply for a limited number of slots. The program has a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning. Topics include gardening, livestock, cooking and entrepreneurship. Participation in the program can lead to paid internships and exploring higher education options.
For more information, call Debbie at 423-636-8171.
If you would like to support this program for youth in our community, please visit generosity.com .
Whew! The year sure is wrapping up fast! Our Farm and Food
Teen Training program wrapped up this month with the Teen Dinner on December 6th.
The annual celebration of the teens’ accomplishments, held at First Presbyterian Church in Greeneville, gives everyone a reason to pause and reflect on the year’s program.
This year’s theme was Growing a CEED. The acronym stands for
Cultivate, Equip, Empower and Develop. Those principles are at the heart of the
FFTT program and Rural Resources’ mission to connect farms, food and families.
Teens prepared and served the dinner with the help of Chef
Melissa Rebholz and Severian Simmons, co-owners of River House Farm. The menu
for the dinner included a succulent pork pot roast, gourmet salad, corn bread,
and a delicious cheese cake. Locally-sourced foods for the event came from
Rural Resources, River House Farm, Buffalo Trail Orchard, Ziegenwald Dairy and
Rosey Aviaries & Bee Farms.
Each youth received a certificate of completion for their
year of learning and service. While some will be moving onto the next step in
their program cycle, others have completed the 4-year program and have the
option to enter into internships. Volunteers and supporters also received
certificates and thank you gifts created by the teens and a former program
participant who started a food-based business. Robert Graf, a long-time
supporter who passed away last spring and is dearly missed, was also remembered.
FFTT stats for the year include 5,596 square feet of gardens
on our Holly Creek Farm and at homes of the teens, and 2,113 total training
hours, which includes classes, gardening, fieldtrips, catering and volunteering
at the Tabernacle Soup Kitchen and a local retirement home, bringing the
program’s cumulative total up to 15,125 since 2008. The teens also made several
donations of fresh produce from their garden on the farm to the soup kitchen.
One of the benefits of the FFTT program that’s hard to quantify is the impact
it has on the families of teens and in their neighborhoods. In addition to the
fresh produce they grow for their families, they often become the shoppers and
cooks in their homes, saving families money and improving their nutrition. The
home gardens sometimes prompt questions from neighbors, which allows the teens
to share their knowledge and experience, while inspiring other low-income
residents to grow their own food.
Another highlight of the year remembered at the dinner was
the Leadership Retreat, an event designed around a ropes course and outdoor adventure activities to build trust and teamwork within
the group and help individuals develop leadership skills, compassion and the
self-confidence they need to make good decisions, especially when faced with
peer pressure.
It’s great to see all these CEEDs taking root and bearing
fruit in the lives of the youth we are privileged to work with. Not only do
they become more self-sufficient and achieve greater food-security through the
programs, the business skills prepare them for employment or starting their own
businesses and, through our connection with Grow Appalachia, two of our youth
have been accepted into tuition-free degree programs at Berea College in
Kentucky.
The truly amazing thing about all of this is that’s it’s
been accomplished without a building or indoor plumbing. A tragic fire in 2009
devoured the programming and office space. Since then, every inch of usable
space – an old tobacco barn and some outbuildings – has been utilized for
programs and a small, two-room construction trailer was donated to house all
the staff. An outdoor composting toilette and a pit-style outhouse serves as
bathrooms and there are outdoor sinks in the milking shed, produce processing
station and Farm Day Camp area.
While the success of the FFTT program is a testament to the
determination of the staff to fill a need for the at-risk youth we work with and
give them the hope of a better future, we’ve become root-bound and are in need
of more – and more efficient – space. Construction began on a new building over
the summer, but we need more funds to complete it. Through a generous
opportunity from the Appalachian Regional Commission, we have an opportunity to
receive a $200,000 grant if we can raise $200,000 on our own. This would be
enough funds to complete the construction of the Farm & Food Learning
Center. The center will house classrooms, a commercial kitchen and office space
… with indoor plumbing!
Rural Resources Executive Director Sally Causey launched a
capital campaign this month to raise the $200,000 by Jamuary 31st.
“There is no doubt that this facility will be a game-changer
for hands-on learning opportunities for years to come,” says Causey.
Please consider being a part of connecting farms, food and
families through community education, programs to empower at-risk youth and
building a vibrant local-foods economy by donating to our capital campaign.
Donations can be made at generosity.com, on our website or by mailing a check
to our office at 2870 Holly Creek Rd, Greeneville, TN 37745. Have questions?
Visit our website, email us at info@ruralresources.net
or call our office at 423-636-8171.
OUR FARM AND FOOD
TEEN TRAINING PARTNERS: THANK YOU!!
Rural Resources wrapped up this year's Farm & Food Teen Training Program with a delightful celebration in honor of all who participate and help make the program possible. Debbie Strickland, our farm & food teen training program coordinator, hosted the evening at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Greeneville on Dec. 3. Stickland introduced each of the program groups, which are Catastrophic Kitchen — Chicken Nuggets, Food Commanders, Silent Farmers and "THE" Group. Each team took turns giving speeches about what they have accomplished throughout the year. Strickland also announced that some students have applied for Berea College. Rural Resources wishes all the teens the best in their futures.
Strickland asked the Food Commanders to cater the dinner. Why?
Because they won a recent Teen Chopped event with their delicious chicken alfredo.
In addition to the pasta, teens prepared a salad with local greens and peach vinaigrette. The meal was served with a side of garlic bread. For dessert, there was a spiced applesauce cake. See the menu below for a list of local farms from which the food was sourced.
