Big news for us and our program of aggregated produce sales: Quitman County School District contracted with us to order 300 pounds of mustard and turnip greens from MDCFWOI’s Beginning Farmers. That’s a lot of healthy eating in schools in our area of the Mississippi Delta. School cafeterias in this part of the country still cook,[…]
Earlier this week in our training space at the warehouse out on DeSoto in Clarksdale, a workshop for our beginning farmer and rancher program. Here, you see our tireless, committed, focused colleague from Tougaloo College extension. And some bare, boring walls in the classroom…thinking the space could use some murals or exciting artwork on the walls.[…]
This week, our staff participated in the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program (BFRDP) Project Directors Meeting, hosted by USDA and Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). We had a chance to present a few highlights from year one of our BFRDP project, Delta Farming Start. In this three-year project, we provide basic business training (including a[…]
With some hands-on help and practical ideas from our program and evaluation consultants (who happen to have designed and run a beautiful handmade soap (and more) business in Tucson, AZ), we’re upgrading and reorganizing the look of the market. Prettier looks (especially with our visiting colleague and grants management specialist Juan Pesquiera standing behind the crates), uniform[…]
It’s not Oklahoma, but Mississippi. And yet… The corn is as high as our grower’s eyes. Aaaand it looks like it’s growing right up to the sky!
Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworker Opportunities, Inc. growers in action. #myfarmer Sharing in celebration of National Farmers Market Week (August 2-13, 2016).
A few photos of market set up in July. Look for even more improvements in displays and systems coming up.
Ernestine and Dorfus Young, a husband and wife team participating in our Delta Farm Start program deliver eggs to Sweet Magnolia Gelato in Clarksdale, MS. The Youngs and Sweet Magnolia’s founder Hugh Balthrop met through an MDCFWOI quick business planning workshop funded by USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture and conducted by DRAResources and ChangeMatters. Mr. Balthrop is inspired[…]
MDCFWOI youth growers and mentors participated in the local Producers Meeting plus processing training and tour of Alcorn State University’s vegetable processing facility (April 7, 2016). They are pictured standing underneath the Marks Mule Train commemorative mural painted by our friend and local painter, musician, and art teacher Rosalind Wilcox. At the Delta Regional Mule Train Market &[…]
Clifton Lockett is one of our DeltaFarmStart participants. His family has been involved in farming for generations. His farming operation is being mentored and advised from Tougaloo College FarmAid program Alcorn State University. Might not look like much yet…it’s early in the season. But farming takes patience! C
With one of the highest unemployment rate in nation, the Mississippi Delta is a tough place for an aspiring teen to find a summer job. At MDCFWOI, we are working to create a more positive future for our community and that’s why MDCFWOI developed the Youth Grower Opportunity and Market program. The Youth Grower Opportunity and Market Program[…]
In this post, we’re sharing a few more snapshots of some of the things happening in February, as participants in Mississippi Delta Council’s Delta FarmStart farmworker microenterprise program gets going in 2016. The program, which is funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program (BFRDP) helps farmworkers and individuals new to[…]
Our two-day workshop, February 11-12, 2016, on basic business planning focused on break-even analysis to determine how long it will take for a new farming or ranching business to start making money. We worked together to answer these questions for each participant: Is there a business in this business? and What $500 investment in the business will[…]
We’ve got produce growing already for the 2016 season in Marks, Lambert, Crenshaw, Darling, and Tunica, Mississippi. Here are more photos of high tunnels on plots we are working throughout the Mississippi Delta.
In a pilot project funded by USDA’s Beginning Farmer Rancher Program, MDCFWOI provided business planning support and assistance to 21 selected participants who represent limited resource, socially-disadvantaged farm and ranch or farm labor backgrounds. Within workshop curriculum developed for the program and tailored to the selected group of participants, MDCFWOI introduced and tested an “Estimated Profit”[…]