Our Beginning Farmer Apprentice Program pilots at local farms

DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT (PDF FORMAT):

• Pages 1-56
• Pages 57-60

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.

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 funding for the program was sufficient for only one year, but 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 continued in the future, either under the umbrella of existing programs or as an independent program, both in Windham County and elsewhere. To this end, an additional grant was secured from the Bay and Paul Foundations, Inc. of New York City to document BFAP and to create a manual for replicating it in other situations for the benefit of local students, schools and farms.

To download a copy of our final report on the summer 2009 BFAP, including a manual for launching BFAPs elsewhere, please follow the links at the top of this page.

For information on participating in the 2010 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 .