Grow a Farmer Campaign
There’s a revolution underway as people across the country and around the world reject industrial food and farming in favor of local, organic, community-scale systems.
This revolution will succeed only if there are enough farmers with the training and knowledge to produce and market fresh, delicious organic food while caring for the land and community in which they work.
The "Grow a Farmer" Campaign is meeting that challenge head on by supporting the Apprenticeship Program at UC Santa Cruz. This internationally known program has trained more than 1,300 new organic farmers and gardeners over the last 42 years. Many of them have started their own training and apprenticeship programs on farms and at urban agriculture projects to share their knowledge.
You can help us grow more farmers and gardeners by supporting the Apprenticeship Program through the Grow a Farmer Campaign. The Apprenticeship self-generates most of its operating income through produce sales, plant sales, and program tuition and fees, but we depend on donations and grants to complete our annual budget. Learn more about the campaign and how you can support this effort by visiting the Grow a Farmer website.
Campaign Background
With an amazing outpouring of support from hundreds of individuals, foundations, and businesses, we were able to build nine beautiful tent cabins to house 36 participants in the Apprenticeship program. Thanks to this support, apprentices can to continue to “live where they learn” and we can keep the program affordable, with tent cabins offering an alternative to Santa Cruz’s expensive rental market.
With the housing project at the UCSC Farm completed, we’re now turning our fundraising efforts to much-needed program operating costs and moving ahead on long-deferred facility and farm equipment upgrades at the Farm & Garden.
