New Beginnings
On 26 November 2018, Little Farms for Veterans was formally organized to establish an agricultural trade school. Little Farms for Veterans focuses on the training of military veterans and their families in all aspects of regenerative and sustainable small-scale agriculture as a vehicle to restore and repair the family unit. There is a special emphasis on disabled veterans. An addition focus is the reclamation and restoration of damaged, misused and underutilized agricultural lands. This will be accomplished by using traditional agricultural practices, heritage breeds. Little Farms for Veterans intends to use the production and sourcing of high quality and better than organic grown food from local veteran farms.
To achieve these goals Little Farms for Veterans is working to create a unique total immersion agricultural program in southern Ohio. Veterans of the U.S. Military and Coast Guard, and their families will live on-site for a minimum of 11 months to participate in a complete one-year agricultural cycle. Little Farms for Veterans intends to have multiple smaller programs to offer in the near future that focus on specific skills and experiences. The Little Farms for Veterans campus will eventually include accommodations for the families, workshops, barns, agricultural equipment, classrooms, greenhouses, with multiple micro-farming models from all spectrums of small scale regenerative and sustainable agriculture on a single campus farm. This will allow Little Farms for Veterans to showcase an expansive and extensive hands-on educational experience. Little Farms for Veterans is working with Ohio State Universities extension campus in Piketon, Ohio, USDA AgrAbility program, and local farmers to provide agricultural science and theory education with disability accessibility and real-world experience to increase our student’s likelihood of success.
After two years in southern Ohio, Little Farms for Veterans has been building partnerships, learning different of agricultural techniques and trades, as well as laboring with local farmers. Little Farms for Veterans is on track to begin are first classes in the spring of 2022. This process took longer than we projected and hoped. But Little Farms for Veterans is better for it. The pain and frustration allows Little Farms for Veterans to provide a better more realistic program for our future students.
Former posts that outlined our journey thus far have been removed. The two main reasons one the amount of spam and bizarre comments would take days to remove (a filter has been installed). Little Farms for Veterans wants to frame the next steps in a more consistent way with regular post and perspectives (Little Farms for Veterans wants to present the future more effectively). Little Farms for Veterans hopes you will follow us on this road, and provide us feedback as we move forward.
Please contact Little Farms for Veterans with your questions and donations to help us make Little Farms for Veterans a success.