VGCC Agricultural project receives $25,000 grant
Vance-Granville Community College has been awarded a $25,000 grant through the Rural Community College Agricultural Cooperative Initiative, with funding provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The grant is for a project entitled “Cultivating and Connecting Agricultural Communities” that seeks to strengthen agricultural cooperative partnerships in Franklin, Granville, Vance, and Warren counties. A different component of the same project received grant funding from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission .
As part of the new grant, VGCC will be able to assist up to 11 eligible continuing education students participating in the “REAL Agricultural Entrepreneurship” or “Heavy Equipment Operator” courses with $900 scholarships towards the cost of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Certification. Participants must use the assistance by Aug. 31, 2016.
GAP Certification is a way for area growers to let buyers know that they follow appropriate food safety practices on their farms. The certification offers two main benefits: economic risk reduction and improved market access opportunities.
Grant funding will also support professional development training for VGCC staff, as well as efforts to build local agricultural partnerships, including a series of four “eat and learn” workshops. Those workshops, which are offered free of charge, began in February and will continue through May. Each has a different focus, but all will help farmers and budding entrepreneurs to understand economic issues related to agriculture and the services that are available through agricultural cooperatives, N.C. Cooperative Extension and the USDA.
A final piece of the grant will pay for two groups of up to 35 students in VGCC curriculum or continuing education programs related to agriculture and science to visit two state-level agricultural cooperatives: N.C. State University’s Agricultural & Extension Education Department and N.C. A&T State University’s Cooperative Extension Program. On these trips, students will meet with professors and extension specialists about new initiatives for soils, crops grown in North Carolina, conservation/sustainability issues and other agricultural topics.
“Cultivating and Connecting Agricultural Communities” is part of a larger effort by VGCC to serve the agriculture sector. In recent years, VGCC has introduced not only the REAL Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Heavy Equipment Operator programs, but also an Agricultural Machinery Rescue course for local firefighters and a course called FACT (Farmers Adopting Computer Training). The Small Business Center has offered several seminars focused on agricultural businesses and incorporated agriculture into a small business summit.
“Agriculture is an extremely important part of the heritage and the economy of the four rural counties that our college serves,” said VGCC Dean of Continuing Education Dale Fey. “That’s why our Small Business Center, Occupational Extension, Human Resources Development and Fire/Rescue departments have sought out innovative ways to meet the needs of local farmers in recent years. This new grant will allow us to expand those efforts in partnership with our community.”
The Rural Community College Agricultural Cooperative Initiative is managed by the Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) with funding from the USDA . The purpose of the initiative is to support a small group of pilot colleges to better support, coordinate and collaborate with local and state-level agricultural cooperatives.
The RCCA is the primary advocacy organization for America’s 600 rural community and tribal colleges and 3.4 million students. The association promotes a more economically, culturally, and civically vibrant rural America, through advocacy, convening, leveraging resources, and serving as a clearing house for innovative practice, policy, and research.
For more information, contact Kyle Burwell, coordinator of Human Resources Development, at (252) 738-3276 or hrd-wk@vgcc.edu , or Tanya Weary, director of the Small Business Center, at (252) 738-3240 or smallbusiness@vgcc.edu .
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