Progress report for FNC22-1349
Project Information
Farmer's Market vegetables and seed packages
Monopolies dominate the global supply of food and seeds. A majority of seeds are imported. Imported produce and seeds are not adapted for the Midwest. Beginning farmers struggle with access to land, mentorship, and educational systems. This detrimental divide further increases if they are special needs farmers. We All Grow will show how viable locally and sustainably sourced vegetable seed production can be, while supporting an underserved beginner farmer segment.
Growing non-GMO heirloom vegetables and seeds plays a critical role in maintaining our local economy. The selling of vegetables and seeds provides an income and more stable supply chain. By farming, raising, and packaging open pollinated heirloom local seeds the varieties of heirloom will not go extinct. No one owns the rights to heirloom seeds. The seeds grown in the Midwest are more adapted to local growing conditions including resistance to regional pests, soil structure, and other environmental situations.
"Growing seeds on small acreage is profitable and we have seen a spike in sales as Covid hit. I sell the produce to chefs and take out the seeds to sell, so it's a double value," Zac Paige North Circle Seed, a mentor and owner of a seed company startup.
- Ecologically Sound
- Identify and collect vegetable seeds that grow well in the Midwest.
- Establish a pollinator habitat.
- Start bee production and honey gathering.
- Economically Viable
- Identify and grow chef preferred vegetables.
- Identify bestselling seeds.
- Identify seed/s with the best profit margin.
- Socially Responsible
- Identify and document adaptive tools utilized.
- Identify best practices for training and working with special needs farmers.
- Organize a public field day.
- Report and share best practices for farming with special needs, Midwest seed viability, and popularity of vegetables with area chefs.
Cooperators
- - Technical Advisor (Researcher)
- (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Researcher)
- - Technical Advisor (Researcher)
- (Researcher)
Research
To date, we consider the project to be successful with our lessons learned. We are excited about the new year's possibilities that we can bring to so many, be it the individual in the project or the consumer enjoying their love of gardening with our hand-packed seeds. Thank you so much for this opportunity and the gift you have given so many with your project. At the end of the day, we all just want the happiness of a job well done and the self-accomplishment that this project achieved with the bonus of healthy fresh products. We look forward to sharing our final progress report with you and the many lives we have touched.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
- We have connected with two other nonprofits working with young adults with special needs.
- Media coverage will begin in the spring as seed-buying season hits.
- We have a media consultant that will be setting up local tv station interviews and newspaper articles.
- We have a social media consultant that will help with getting the word out by social media that will start in the spring.
Learning Outcomes
The progress report for "Everybody Grows Project".
The project has had an exciting year of outcomes and lessons learned that can be shared with the agricultural and educational community. This year we have been establishing our project by developing the proper methods and techniques in these uncharted areas. In 2023 we plan to roll it out to more young adults who enjoy agriculture that also have special needs.
Our hope for this project was that our target audience, young adults with special needs age 18 - 21, would get enjoyment and fulfillment from working in the agriculture field. This was accomplished by watching the young adults planting seeds, observing and managing the plants as they mature, watching the plants produce fruit, and then packing the seeds. Observing the young adults handing out home-grown products was the equivalent of watching a young child open a well-desired birthday present.
During the seed-packing process, the children were employed during the winter months. We decided not to label the packets with an individual's initials because we didn't want any of the young adults feeling slighted if they entered a store and only their packages were unsold. This is something we plan to review in the next couple of months as the young adults are currently packing seeds for next spring's sales.
Last year product was given away or used for seeds. This year we will be producing more products with an increased number of young adult farmers and selling the produce at farmers' markets along with last year's hand-packaged seeds.
Last year packaged seeds were sold online exclusively. This year we will continue to sell online and expand our online locations with increasing awareness of social media. Because of the limited number of seed packages last year, social media was not used. We will also be selling the seed packets in brick-and-mortar locations this year.
For the designing of the seed packets, we also used individuals with special needs to design the packet with an heirloom feel. Again, this was done to help employ and promote somebody's work and give them self-fulfilling gratitude of a task well done.
The individuals that were participating in the different farming and seed packing processes were individuals from a local 18 to 21 program. The plan is to have the program be self-sufficient and reproducible by other schools with similar programs. In the Kansas City area alone and only on the Kansas side of the city, we currently know of at least 10 of these programs. These programs are also essential in rural America, where this program, Everyone Grows was implemented. Because there are fewer businesses in rural America that offer work-study opportunities, these individuals have fewer opportunities.
In 2022 we sold over 500 packets at one online location only. This year we plan on selling over 2,000 seed packets at multiple locations and are on track to increase that each year. Plus, we will have the local farmer's market to sell the products. We also plan to increase the number of young adult farmers with special needs engaged in the program.
Project Outcomes
The progress report for "Everybody Grows" Project.
The 18 to 21 program is a program developed by high schools to help individuals with special needs that are not quite ready to be introduced to the world and need just a little bit of extra time and skills. As you might have guessed, this group has graduated high school but is not yet 21 years old. This project helps these individuals develop extra counting skills by using visualizing steps in multisensory, which was an extra benefit to the project. It also helps individuals find a new love of gardening that they can use throughout their adult life. One of the other benefits that have been realized by this program, which was not expected, was the fulfillment of the individuals helping the young adults. The helpers also found agricultural passions and enjoyment by watching the individual's excitement over a job well done, be it fulfilling seed packets or watching the products grow from the ground. It truly lived up to its name Everyone Grows, be it the participants or the staff, or the end consumer feeling good about the products they get while helping support a worthwhile project.
To date, we consider the project to be successful with our lessons learned. We are excited about the new year's possibilities that we can bring to so many, be it the individual in the project or the consumer enjoying their love of gardening with our hand-packed seeds. Thank you so much for this opportunity and the gift you have given so many with your project. At the end of the day, we all just want the happiness of a job well done and the self-accomplishment that this project achieved with the bonus of healthy fresh products. We look forward to sharing our final progress report with you and the many lives we have touched.
One of the biggest successes has been customer satisfaction with the seeds. Feeling good about the cause and outcome of the seeds.
The progress report for Everybody Grows Project.
We also discovered through tests and trials that our best brick-and-mortar locations were Boutique shops that specialize in unique and local items. We also learned that locally owned coffee shops are also a good location for our specially packed seeds. We found it best to avoid going with the mainstream locations or big box stores to sell our products.
We discovered our seed packets' target market is individuals looking to buy a story. This is a common practice with items that cannot be mass-produced.
One of the other discoveries we realized was that some of the adults were not quite able to count to 30 plus. And counting the seeds helps them develop some of their needed life skills. The challenge came with being able to let the young adults count the seeds in a way that would ensure the number of seeds in a packet. After many trials and errors, we discovered that by laminating a card with the numbers 1 through 32 on a pill box that was used for pharmaceutical use, the individuals could easily count out and fill the seeds packets. The seed packets generally note 30 seeds per packet. We had the young adults pack 32 to ensure a margin of error, whether by error filling the packets or by non-germinating seeds. For seed packets that had smaller seeds, we developed scoops that the individuals could scoop into the packets.
The beauty of this project was the discovery that massive amounts of land are not required to produce the seeds necessary for the packaging and product sale. This project could be reproduced in other locations by local farmers or individuals, allowing the groups to use small amounts of land.
The area that was challenging for us and we would probably not recommend to anyone copying or reproducing this project would be the bees. Instead, we might recommend that the group work with an existing beekeeping person that practices good habits. Or locate the gardens near existing bee hive colonies. The challenge we came across was the consistent fight of the bee mites. We found that individuals with special needs weren't really fond of suiting up and taking care of the bees. So in that way, it was a big learning lesson for the project.