BFRDP Projects

ORIS’s long-term goal for this project is to improve beginning farmer success and food security among refugee and immigrant communities in New Hampshire. We do this by supporting beginning farmers with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to make good farm business decisions and enhance sustainability. The target audience is 100% immigrant farmers who have operated a farm or ranch for fewer than 10 years. This funding addresses the needs of limited resource beginning farmers and ranchers, socially disadvantaged beginning farmers and immigrant farm workers planning to become beginning farmers or ranchers.

Year 1 progress:
Hosted thousands of hours of orientations, informational meetings, and technical workshops.
Expanded farm stands and CSA pickup sites; developed two new contract wholesale customers
4 farmers attended the 2017 Community Food Systems Conference
6 farmers from attended NASAP workshops
Purchased 56.8 acres in Dunbarton; 7 acres actively cultivated
Secured access to 4 acres in Concord for incubator farmers. Installed washing station and 12 gravity fed drip irrigation kits for beginning farmers.

Year 2 progress:
Through 2,072 hours of training and technical assistance on 3 incubator farms, ORIS facilitated culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach, business planning, peer-to-peer mentoring, and access to 9 farmer’s markets, 5 farm stands, 6 Mobile Market sites.

Year 3 progress:
Through 2,054 hours of training and technical assistance on 2 incubator farms, ORIS facilitated culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach, business planning, and access to 11 farmer’s markets, 1 farm stand, 20 Mobile Market sites, and CSA program that grew exponentially.

COVID-19 challenged ORIS’s training, recruitment, and ability to connect refugee farmers other food systems players. Still, farmers embraced COVID-19 safety, while significantly increasing their sales. Farmer independence grew significantly. All farmers are eager to leverage the successes of this year, invest in their plots, and continue building their businesses.