Final report for ONC22-109
Project Information
A grant was previously awarded to Purdue Extension and the City of Gary to facilitate an initiative that involved creating an urban farming course for the people of Gary, IN. The project also allowed course participants to apply their knowledge through on-farm internships, pairing them with a local farmer mentor. Overwhelming participant feedback indicates the most valuable component of this learning experience has been the on-farm internships and mentorships. The purpose of this proposal is to continue to grow sustainable urban agriculture in Lake County, IN by funding on-farm internships and mentorships for new and beginning urban farmers, and part of the grant manager’s salary. The grant manager will manage the interns and mentors, and apply for sustainable local sponsorships to continue providing internships/mentorships, and avoid reliance on grants.
- Secure sustainable local funding to continue this project indefinitely.
- Provide paid on-farm internships to Lake County residents who participate in an urban farming course.
- Provide pay incentives to urban farmer mentors to facilitate on-farm learning experiences for urban farming interns.
Cooperators
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Research
The Purdue University Lake County urban agriculture extension educator has managed the Purdue urban farming internship for three years from 2022-2024. We were awarded in early 2022. We worked with an advisory council of urban farmers to review past years' internships through a previously awarded SARE grant for the Gary Urban Farming Initiative. We determined that the most valuable experiences were the connections between urban farming mentors and mentees, on-farm work experience, and farmer-led workshops and farm tours. We recruited farmer mentors from more established growers in Lake County, IN. Then we opened the internship application in early March 2022. We worked with an advisory council to select interns and send approval emails in late March. Interns were paired with mentors based on responses to an initial interview. Interns could select from 8 farms to work with each week. The internship manager requested farm work times from participating farmer work sites each week, and shared the work opportunities with the interns. Interns would sign up to work in different time slots using Google Sheets. Interns were required to work 8 hours each week from mid-May to mid-July, for a total of 80 work hours. This included time working one-on-one with their assigned mentor, and time working on-farm at work sites. Year 2022 had 6 interns and 4 mentors. Mentors were paid a stipend and interns were paid a stipend. The grant manager checked in with interns and mentors each week. Mentors and interns were expected to sit down regularly to discuss intern business goals and strategies.
By the end of year one, we learned that most interns and mentors were not having sit-down conversations, and that interns preferred to learn through working on-farm. Therefore in 2023, we pivoted from a formal mentorship model with paid mentors to an informal mentorship model where interns could work at one farm, paying the mentor with farm labor, and experience additional farms by attending farmer-led tours and workshops. This was also a more sustainable model with less work needed from the internship manager and less funding required to pay mentors.
One of our objectives of this proposal was to secure sustainable funding to continue the internship program. Therefore we reallocated mentor stipends to advisory council stipends. In 2023 we had 7 interns and 3 paid advisory council members, including one videographer/historian. Our videographer created a Youtube channel called urbanfarminternship, which now has 7 videos, 20 subscribers, and 420 views. Advisory council members created an internship promotional plan, including potential sponsor contact information, and sponsorship letter requests. We included the videos in our sponsorship requests. We also increased the internship length from May-October for interns to experience the full growing season. Interns participated in 8 farm tours and attended the following workshops: healthy tips for gardening-physical wellness, hydroponics, soil remediation, tips for finding property histories, small farm equipment demonstration, starting a community garden, and a vegetable field day a the Pinney Purdue Agricultural Center.
In 2024, we had 3 interns. Interns attended workshops on low tunnels, elderberry syrup processing, a high tunnel build, and a small farm equipment demonstration. We also paid for interns to participate in a Purdue beginner livestock series.
In 2024 we secured $3,600 in sponsorships from four sponsors. We followed the same model from 2023 - Unfortunately our largest sponsor was the Urban Soil Health Program by IASWCD, whose staff are now furloughed due to government cutbacks.
We conducted a pre- and post-program survey with 16 urban farming interns across three years (2022, 2023, 2024). The survey was distributed electronically via email using Qualitrics survey software. Pre-program we asked interns what they hoped to gain from the program, what their personal production goals were, and what their vision for urban agriculture is for their community. The goal of the pre-program survey was primarily to pair interns with experienced farmer mentors.
Post-program we asked interns what their perceived most valuable aspects of the internship were, whether they planned to continue any collaborations they formed during the program, and whether they plan to adopt any on-farm practices they learned during the program. The goal of the post-program survey was primarily to measure the impact of the program and make any necessary revisions to the program for next year.
We also conducted a long-term post-program survey of interns from 2022-2023 to measure long-term effects of the internship.
Survey questions were primarily free-response.
Throughout this grant project we found our most ideal urban farming internship model with the lowest maintenance requirements and the greatest benefits. Our ideal model consists of local sponsors supporting 3-4 intern stipends per year, and 6-8 farm tours and workshops from May-October, with no required number of hours. Interns are then paired with a mentor farmer based on their farming interests (similar products, scale, market, etc.). The internship manager checks in weekly with the interns and mentors, and organizes farmer-led farm tours and workshops in topics ranging from production to business and marketing. We will continue to seek funding to continue this program. We will have to pivot our types of sponsors based on government cutbacks.
Based on the pre-program survey: Participants hoped to gain urban farming exposure and experience, knowledge in how to urban farm, apply course knowledge, use knowledge to educate others, build relationships, learn how to use a greenhouse, hoop house, other tools, start an urban farm, learn about the urban farming community, feed their family, have a beneficial mentorship, learn how to scale their efforts, help sustain Gary urban farming efforts.
Participants grew primarily herbs and vegetables. Some hoped to incorporate fruit. Many participants grew in raised beds. Most grew at a household/homestead level, some wanted to grow for their community. Most grew at a small scale.
Participants’ vision for urban agriculture included urban block farming, community members teaching others where food comes from and how to grow food, teaching about the importance of pollinators, teaching about native and invasive plats, teaching youth and growing food, helping people of Gary make Gary the leader in urban agriculture in Northwest Indiana. Making urban agriculture more accessible. A farming co-op where farmers work together and specialize.
We were unable to obtain survey data from the three interns from 2024. We asked for survey feedback several times and were unsuccessful. We believe this has to do with some negative experiences from the administrative side of the internship. We struggled to get interns paid in a timely fashion. So although we had 16 total interns from 2021-2024, only 11 interns participated in the survey, with no increase in survey participation from 2023-2024.
Based on the results of the post-surveys:
Participants indicated the following were the most valuable aspects of the program (Out of 11 survey participants 2022- 2024):
The ability to learn hands-on (9), connection with farms close to my area (9), connection to markets (4), connection with farms similar to my own (3), connection with farms different from my own (8), connection with farms further from my area (7).
We added the following questions in 2023-2024 (out of 6 survey participants):
Connection to more experienced farmers (6); relationship-building with other growers (6); peer-to-peer learning (6); the ability to share my knowledge and experience (5); educational webinars (5); farm Tours (6); and workshops (6).
100% of survey participants indicated they planned to continue relationships formed during the internship. One mentioned joining local food hubs, starting an additional fellowship, and joining several professional associations. One is incorporating as a nonprofit. Two mentioned interest in staying in touch/joining future programs. One indicated particular appreciation for connecting urban and rural farmers. One indicated they were planning to pursue forming a farmer co-op. One indicated they would continue volunteering at the farms.
Participants planned to adopt the following as a result of participating in the program: an irrigation rain barrel system; no-till practices; trellising; more efficient use of space; more proactive weed control; better soil health practices; a more social grow system (e.g. to help enter the wholesale market); compost and organic soil amendments; teaching others; planting trees; succession planting; hügelkultur; harvesting and marketing techniques.
Participants mentioned the following benefits of on-farm work experiences through the internship:
Learning financial challenges and product diversification opportunities; benefits of collaborative farming; being able to ask questions and get answers in real time; and getting hands-on training.
Participants indicated learning the following skills through the internship:
Diversifying income; the benefits of developing a distribution network; planting, watering, growing produce; composting; varieties of crops; planting and harvesting garlic.
Participants indicated interest in learning more about the following in future years: small-farm business start-up paperwork; and building soil. Participants indicated the following challenges with the program: Not having clear hour requirements/expectations for amount of time worked per farm; knowing what educational opportunities would be available at each farm.
We also conducted a long-term post-evaluation of all 13 interns from years 2022-2023. Six of 11 interns responded to the survey. The results of this evaluation showed that all six participants continued relationships beyond the internship. These relationships ranged from still connecting with their mentors, engaging with additional webinars and programs, serving as contractors to work with established urban farms, being invited to serve on advisory councils and food councils, and being awarded grants. All participants reported adopting new on-farm practices in response to participating in the internship. These practices include incorporating hydroponics, composting, integrated pest management, growing new crops, propagating plants, irrigation, companion planting, cover cropping and healthy soil practices. Three of the six participants reported to be growing for market. Three of the six reported growing for personal use. Participants provided feedback for future years - i.e. they wanted to have structured curriculum at each farm they visited; they wanted to visit more farms. Participants wanted more information in the topics of hemp growing, building a hoop house, starting a CSA, permaculture, growing in containers.
Since this grant, we have also worked with the NWI Food Council to create the first Department of Labor-recognized farmer apprenticeship program, which just launched in February 2025. This apprenticeship program helps farmer employers hire W2 farm apprentices at competitive wages, and offers the apprentices required coursework, paid for by the Center for Workforce Innovations. We see our urban farming internship program as a stepping stone toward building our small farm business owners' capacity to hire full-time employees. This internship meets the need for new and beginning farmers to gain hands-on farm work experience while connecting with the greater small farming community in northwest Indiana, and engaging with Extension and other ag-serving agencies.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Press release 4: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/08/02/brothers-keeper-community-farm-brings-gary-back-to-its-roots/
Youtube channel with intern interviews: https://www.youtube.com/@UrbanFarmInternship
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
100% of survey participants indicated they planned to continue relationships formed during the internship. At least one new farmer is planning to pursue forming a farmer co-op, and one indicated they would continue volunteering at the farms. One mentioned joining local food hubs, starting an additional fellowship, and joining several professional associations. One is incorporating as a nonprofit. Two mentioned interest in staying in touch/joining future programs. One indicated particular appreciation for connecting urban and rural farmers. One indicated they were planning to pursue forming a farmer co-op. One indicated they would continue volunteering at the farms. We are helping to connect new farmers with mentors and other new farmers, building more resilient farmer networks.
Participants planned to adopt the following as a result of participating in the program: an irrigation rain barrel system; no-till practices; trellising; more efficient use of space; more proactive weed control; better soil health practices; a more social grow system (e.g. to help enter the wholesale market); compost and organic soil amendments; teaching others; planting trees; succession planting; hügelkultur; harvesting and marketing techniques.
Do you plan to continue the collaborations you formed during the program?
"Yes! I plan first to contact the out-of-Gary and thank them for the experience. I’m continuing to sell fresh herbs to Faith Farms for their CSA and actively planning to expand that next year. And I’m still discussing with the Calumet Collaborative about possible funding to discuss co-ops that would involve our Gary growers."
"Yes. Whenever there's any other ongoing websites or gathering going on after the internship, I'll gladly continnue to participate in and support."
Do you plan to adopt new on-farm practices as a result of participating in the program?
"God yes. More intentional and efficient use of space. More assertive and proactive weed control. Better soil health practices. I also learned a lot more about the myriad was growers work and support each other socially (growing for wholesale as one example)."
Anything else?
"I am so grateful and appreciative for all the supporters and this incredible opportunity internship program."
"The tours were amazing and being around individuals who see change and make it happen is very appreciated. Thank you."