Our Beginning Farmer Apprentice Program

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD UPDATED 2010 FULL REPORT (PDF FORMAT)

With the help of a federal grant facilitated by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Strolling of the Heifers conducted the pilot phase of its Beginning Farmer Apprentice Program (BFAP) during the summer of 2009.  BFAP was created to address the problems of at-risk youth by placing them in summer apprenticeships on family farms in Windham County, Vt. The program was repeated in the summer of 2010 with funding from the Bay and Paul Foundations, the Lydia B. Stokes Foundation, and the John Merck Fund, and will now become a regular part of the Windham Regional Career Center's new agricultural curriculum.

In addition to providing potentially life-changing experiences for at-risk youth in the Brattleboro area, BFAP is also intended to address the problem that not enough young people are considering farming as a career, whether as farm owners or farm employees. The need for “replacement farmers” exists in Vermont and many other states. To the extent that BFAP can encourage some young people to consider farming as a career option, or to reinforce a choice already made by providing hands-on experience, it will contribute to a solution to this problem.

The 2009 pilot phase entailed 15 students, who were placed at five farms; the 2010 program placed 15 students on 7 farms. SOTH’s intention in launching BFAP was to create a pilot program in which results could be monitored and evaluated so that it could be replicated in the future, either under the umbrella of existing programs or as an independent program, and we encourage inquiries on how organizations and school systems elsewhere can do just that.

Following these two successful summer programs, it is transitioning to become part of the new agricultural curriculum at the Windham Regional Career Center in Brattleboro. For a story in Brattleboro's weekly newspaper, The Commons, about this, click here.

To download a copy of our updated final report on the summer 2010 BFAP, including a manual for launching BFAPs elsewhere, please follow the link at the top of this page.

For further information on the Beginning Farmer Apprentice Program, please contact Orly Munzing at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .