Through a partnership between the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT), Nichols College, Global Village Farms (GVF), and the Massachusetts Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA/MA), this project supports beginning farmers and ranchers (BFR's) with training in financial literacy, business planning, soil health assessment, and climate smart management practices. Over the last year, we focused our outreach efforts on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) BFR's in Massachusetts and Rhode Island (with small expansions into Vermont and Connecticut). Per the 2017 Agricultural Census, there are approximately 3,500 BFR's in Massachusetts and 500 BFR's in Rhode Island. In addition, there are approximately 550 BIPOC farmers in these two states. As our our capacity grows over the next two years, we work to reach BIPOC BFR's in all or part of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut, where there are hundreds, if not thousands of potential candidates for this program.
Given the high regional population density and land development, many of our farmers have small-scale operations. As a new organization providing outreach and programming for BIPOC beginning farmers and ranchers, our first year was focused on conducting intentional outreach (with a clearly defined process) that would benefit and amplify all our future offerings and the organization as whole. As such, PPLT planned, developed, and continues to expand our regional farmer network database via Salesforce. During each 1:1 meetings with producers, PPLT provided funding access navigation, TA, USDA resources, and community building facilitation. Additionally, over the past year, our team (NOFA/Mass, Nichols College, Global Village) has provided 1 six-day intensive business planning, four soil health training workshops, three soil health webinars, and one community building and USDA resources workshop.