Therese Zimmerman

Director of Urban Farm and Agriculture Education

Good Shepherd Montessori School

108 S Notre Dame Ave
Apt 2
South Bend, IN 46617
United States

(w) (574) 340-0975

About

Therese Zimmerman-Niemier brings 25 years of experience in small farming practices and production coupled with 30 years of education background; the last 225 years being land based and serving all ages. She is the founder and Director of Bertrand Farm, Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to small farming agriculture education. The mission at Bertrand Farm is to connect people to their food and to promote health and sustainable farming practices. Therese represents the small, local farming movement that is mindful of energy descent and focused on alternatives to petroleum based agriculture production. In 2009 Bertrand Farm began an internship program for young adults interested in the small food farming model. They received a SARE grant in 2011 to build on previous SARE funded curriculum programs by adding beginner farmer workshops and a useful PowerPoint component to encourage and support interning programs on small farming operations. She works with the local NRCS office to implement conservation practices whenever possible and is supported by them for marketing educational programming. Therese has qualified for and implemented EQUIP program incentives for organic farming and hoop house production. In 2017 Therese began a partnership with Good Shepherd Montessori School in South Bend, to create an urban agriculture learning center for GSMS students , local universities and the greater community. Her programming lives on at the urban site where she continues to connect people of all ages to food production in order as a matter of health and sustainability education. She now resides near that project.