The Food and Farming Apprenticeship Program is a community-centered educational pathway that aims to support food sovereignty, a symbiotic relationship with the earth, and community empowerment. This program is made possible through a collaboration between Peace Gardens & Market, Bountiful Cities, Patchwork Alliance, Root Cause Farm, and ASAP. Through a combination of classes, fieldwork, and mentorship, the apprentices enrolled in this program can expect to gain a broad understanding of the various aspects of the regional food system.
The goal is to engage individuals who typically have less access to traditional education and face barriers to employment, especially those who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and applicants with low-wealth backgrounds. Apprentices will participate in multiple food system pathways, which can lead to a livelihood in food and farming while learning about food justice, sovereignty, self-empowerment, and employment opportunities in both the non-profit and private sectors.
During the first 2 years, this initiative has provided invaluable food and farming education for six apprentices, compensating them with a living wage. The program has been a dynamic journey, encompassing visits to 17 farms or food based programs, engaging with over 20 mentors and practitioners, and exploring wide variety of food and farming topics in Western North Carolina.
As we reflect on the success of the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program, we express our gratitude to our partners, mentors, and the dedicated apprentices for their commitment to fostering a more sustainable, diverse, and resilient food and farming community in Western North Carolina.
The goal is to engage individuals who typically have less access to traditional education and face barriers to employment, especially those who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and applicants with low-wealth backgrounds. Apprentices will participate in multiple food system pathways, which can lead to a livelihood in food and farming while learning about food justice, sovereignty, self-empowerment, and employment opportunities in both the non-profit and private sectors.
During the first 2 years, this initiative has provided invaluable food and farming education for six apprentices, compensating them with a living wage. The program has been a dynamic journey, encompassing visits to 17 farms or food based programs, engaging with over 20 mentors and practitioners, and exploring wide variety of food and farming topics in Western North Carolina.
As we reflect on the success of the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program, we express our gratitude to our partners, mentors, and the dedicated apprentices for their commitment to fostering a more sustainable, diverse, and resilient food and farming community in Western North Carolina.
For more information, contact Kate Justen, Program Director at [email protected]
This Program is possible due to the support from our funders:
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2023 Cohort - by Isabella
When I found the application for the collaborative farming apprenticeship in January of 2023, I knew this program was for me; I didn’t yet know how or why it would change my path in life. But it became the catalyst for what would become one of the most transformative years of my life. The reconnection to earth, our food systems, my relationship to the land, and how I envisioned my role in the community began to take shape after the first couple of months. I began to see a path of resistance through sustainable food systems that I hadn't fully realized until I met growers like Chris at Utopian Seed Project, Sarah Nunez with Aflorar Herb Collective, and Pat Battle with Dig In Yancey Community Farm.
Visiting Yesod farm gave me a sense of what growing food could be if we listened more closely to the land and moved with intention in every decision we, as land stewards, make regarding land practices. Visiting Tyson in Cherokee emphasized to me the importance of ancestry, generational knowledge sharing, and seeing all life as our siblings. We first have to understand the plants before we process them, and that comes from deep listening to our elders & mentors. Working with and learning from John at Root Cause Farm gave us hands-on experience transplanting, weeding, and cultivating the soil for free vegetable distribution with Bounty & Soul.
When mentoring under herbalista Sara Nunez I was shown how our ailments and traumas could be addressed with sacred healing herbal medicine. As someone with chronic illness & pain, I was fascinated and empowered with the world of plants and their soul-mind-body connection. I began studying herbal formulation, culturally significant herbs, and African American, Latinx, and indigenous herbal processing practices. The alchemical nature of the process of medicine-making brought my inner healer out and I started building a relationship with certain plants that called to me.
Witnessing the many iterations of sustainable food systems throughout WNC gave me insight into the broader food justice movement. Through collaborations between farms, community gardens, and mutual aid collectives, I see that the through line becomes creating access to much-needed nutrient-dense foods for our most vulnerable neighbors. When we see people in our community experiencing food apartheid we uplift and come together to cultivate abundance because the current systems aren't meeting our most basic needs. Once I saw this network existed, I saw a way to build onto the mission of community care with the land I had access to.
Overall my experience with the collaborative apprenticeship covered a broad area of earth knowledge, food justice, ecological land practices, and mutual aid; but more importantly, the connections I made were the most impactful to my long-term goals, and to the path I’ve decided to take as a result. Working, learning, and communing with a cohort of black femmes on this journey made the experience feel all the more impactful and created a sense of safety when going out to these rural & unfamiliar places. We bonded in a way that made navigating the experience enriching and so very soul-warming. Knowing I’ve come out of the program with soul family is more than I could ever expect to have found within 9 months of an apprenticeship. The welcome & excitement we received as we eventually vocalized the desire to become land stewards and herbal workers, was such a clear signal to me that the agricultural world needs/is calling for more young black & brown folks to be earth workers, healers, and community co-builders. I’m so grateful to get to share our lives as we navigate our continued journey into the food & farming world.
What's next? I’m starting a garden project in Swannanoa aimed at providing herbal remedies, food boxes, and growing space to BIPOC folks experiencing chronic illness, food apartheid, and lack of access to land. Why do we need this program to continue? This program has the potential to continue bringing BIPOC folks into relationships with the broader food justice movement, create future land stewards, and ensure the continued goal of liberation on land. The more we model these educational programs, the more folks see the value in knowledge sharing as community care.
When I found the application for the collaborative farming apprenticeship in January of 2023, I knew this program was for me; I didn’t yet know how or why it would change my path in life. But it became the catalyst for what would become one of the most transformative years of my life. The reconnection to earth, our food systems, my relationship to the land, and how I envisioned my role in the community began to take shape after the first couple of months. I began to see a path of resistance through sustainable food systems that I hadn't fully realized until I met growers like Chris at Utopian Seed Project, Sarah Nunez with Aflorar Herb Collective, and Pat Battle with Dig In Yancey Community Farm.
Visiting Yesod farm gave me a sense of what growing food could be if we listened more closely to the land and moved with intention in every decision we, as land stewards, make regarding land practices. Visiting Tyson in Cherokee emphasized to me the importance of ancestry, generational knowledge sharing, and seeing all life as our siblings. We first have to understand the plants before we process them, and that comes from deep listening to our elders & mentors. Working with and learning from John at Root Cause Farm gave us hands-on experience transplanting, weeding, and cultivating the soil for free vegetable distribution with Bounty & Soul.
When mentoring under herbalista Sara Nunez I was shown how our ailments and traumas could be addressed with sacred healing herbal medicine. As someone with chronic illness & pain, I was fascinated and empowered with the world of plants and their soul-mind-body connection. I began studying herbal formulation, culturally significant herbs, and African American, Latinx, and indigenous herbal processing practices. The alchemical nature of the process of medicine-making brought my inner healer out and I started building a relationship with certain plants that called to me.
Witnessing the many iterations of sustainable food systems throughout WNC gave me insight into the broader food justice movement. Through collaborations between farms, community gardens, and mutual aid collectives, I see that the through line becomes creating access to much-needed nutrient-dense foods for our most vulnerable neighbors. When we see people in our community experiencing food apartheid we uplift and come together to cultivate abundance because the current systems aren't meeting our most basic needs. Once I saw this network existed, I saw a way to build onto the mission of community care with the land I had access to.
Overall my experience with the collaborative apprenticeship covered a broad area of earth knowledge, food justice, ecological land practices, and mutual aid; but more importantly, the connections I made were the most impactful to my long-term goals, and to the path I’ve decided to take as a result. Working, learning, and communing with a cohort of black femmes on this journey made the experience feel all the more impactful and created a sense of safety when going out to these rural & unfamiliar places. We bonded in a way that made navigating the experience enriching and so very soul-warming. Knowing I’ve come out of the program with soul family is more than I could ever expect to have found within 9 months of an apprenticeship. The welcome & excitement we received as we eventually vocalized the desire to become land stewards and herbal workers, was such a clear signal to me that the agricultural world needs/is calling for more young black & brown folks to be earth workers, healers, and community co-builders. I’m so grateful to get to share our lives as we navigate our continued journey into the food & farming world.
What's next? I’m starting a garden project in Swannanoa aimed at providing herbal remedies, food boxes, and growing space to BIPOC folks experiencing chronic illness, food apartheid, and lack of access to land. Why do we need this program to continue? This program has the potential to continue bringing BIPOC folks into relationships with the broader food justice movement, create future land stewards, and ensure the continued goal of liberation on land. The more we model these educational programs, the more folks see the value in knowledge sharing as community care.
Pilot Year, 2022
You spoke and we listened. After years of planning and community assessments, the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program launched on March 14, 2022, with three apprentices. For this pilot year, we focused on hammering out the curriculum and gathering our instructors as well as the sites that the apprentices will visit to gain hands-on experiences and skills.
Apprentices started the year attending the Come to the Table Conference hosted by Rural Advancement Foundation International. That opened up some good discussion on the ideas of “Land Hunger,” food security, and the USDA’s hand in how food systems function. Land Hunger was a term used to describe the drive freedmen had to acquire land that they had previously been barred from. They would squat on the land and take any means necessary to acquire it. Land is integral to growing food. Access to land is one of the number one barriers that new emerging farmers continue to face. It is how wealth has been built in this country for generations. Land is also how we determine rights, voting, and the like via districting. And with more and more farmland being developed and turned into subdivisions, farmers and those who want a secure food future are becoming more land hungry.
This brings us to the idea of Food Security. One speaker defined food security as, “All people, at all times, having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy lifestyle.” This is a very in-depth concept of the term and brings into question how many individuals can truly say they are food secure. With this definition, the numbers for food insecurity are staggering. The apprenticeship program is designed to help foster more food security in our community, not only by giving community members the skills needed to grow food in their areas but also by sharing these skills throughout the community.
You spoke and we listened. After years of planning and community assessments, the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program launched on March 14, 2022, with three apprentices. For this pilot year, we focused on hammering out the curriculum and gathering our instructors as well as the sites that the apprentices will visit to gain hands-on experiences and skills.
Apprentices started the year attending the Come to the Table Conference hosted by Rural Advancement Foundation International. That opened up some good discussion on the ideas of “Land Hunger,” food security, and the USDA’s hand in how food systems function. Land Hunger was a term used to describe the drive freedmen had to acquire land that they had previously been barred from. They would squat on the land and take any means necessary to acquire it. Land is integral to growing food. Access to land is one of the number one barriers that new emerging farmers continue to face. It is how wealth has been built in this country for generations. Land is also how we determine rights, voting, and the like via districting. And with more and more farmland being developed and turned into subdivisions, farmers and those who want a secure food future are becoming more land hungry.
This brings us to the idea of Food Security. One speaker defined food security as, “All people, at all times, having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy lifestyle.” This is a very in-depth concept of the term and brings into question how many individuals can truly say they are food secure. With this definition, the numbers for food insecurity are staggering. The apprenticeship program is designed to help foster more food security in our community, not only by giving community members the skills needed to grow food in their areas but also by sharing these skills throughout the community.
