Internship Project

Margaret Ward
University of Georgia
HDFS 5910
Dr. Melissa Kozak
April 29, 2015

The goal of Athens Land Trusts Community Agriculture Program, which

can be found on their website, is to increase the number of minority farmers
and raise awareness of NRCS programs. The program works with beginning
and existing farmers. ALT provides farmers with the educational tools and
resources necessary to improve or start their practice. Underserved groups
are defined as: Individuals and groups who have not participated in or have
received limited benefit from USDA or NRCS programs which may improve
their quality of life and/or the environment. A major part of the program is
collaborating with the NRCS, United States Department of Agriculture agency
that provides assistance to landowners and farmers to steward the land.
Another mission of Athens Land Trust is to increase peoples access to affordable, natural
foods, as well as community building. The West Broad Farmers Market serves as a connection
between low income, minority groups and healthy food from underserved farmers. As of 2012,
an average of 35.3% of people in Athens are below the national poverty level. This is even is
higher than the state of Georgias average. I love that the Land Trust is devoted to providing
healthy and wholesome food to those that might struggle financially in our community, and they
support underserved farmers and artisans in the midst of this.

This mission starts with Farmer Outreach. According to the USDA, the number of farms
in Georgia has decreased by 12% in the last five years. Most of this decline is seen in the number
of small farms. I was excited to organize a system that will help improve ALTs communication
with farmers and also promote educational tools and resources to benefit the farmers.
Now that this project exists:
Documents will be easier to access. For example, when a farmer needs an application for a grant,
we can pull it out of the notebook and make copies without having to spend time searching for
documents online or calling agencies for information.
Farmers can be contacted on a regular basis. The contacts will be easy to access and grouped by
county so that we can also help farmers network with other farmers in close proximity.
Information will be ready before the Community Agriculture team visits farms and land. Our
Farm Outreach Coordinator is always busy traveling to farms, and her visits will be made much
easier if she has brochures, pamphlets, and other information ready-to-go.
We can expand our Farmer Outreach services. Hopefully, less time will be spent on things like
gathering information for workshops and farm visits, and more time can be spent on outreach.
Considering Objectives
The project helped me reflect on HDFS course knowledge, particularly knowledge that I
gained from classes like Professional Development, as I learned to effectively communicate with
coworkers that know more about the Farmer Outreach program than I do. I really needed their
assistance to develop the most appropriate and useful Farmer Outreach notebook. Also, I
critically and scientifically identify and evaluate the interconnected systems of individuals, like

the farmers, to create a folder that contains applicable resources and information. Even though I
I didnt pursue the CFLE certification, the Farmer Outreach folder will satisfy the Planning and
Organization objective as well as Writing & Materials Development and Program
Development across the Human lifespan. One of my personal goals in this project was to work
on my Professional Development and to gain a better knowledge of communication among the
population of farmers and artisans.

References
U.S. Census Bureau. (2012) State & county Quickfacts. Retrieved from
http://quickfacts.census.gov.
Athens Land Trust.(2015) Community Agriculture. Retrieved from:
http://www.athenslandtrust.org/community-agriculture/farmer-outreach