Video courtesy of K. ADO Films
Interview with Growing Veterans Founder Christopher Brown
AH:Please tell us about the primary activities of Growing Veterans.
CB:Growing Veterans exists to empower veterans to grow food, communities and each other. Through combining veteran reintegration with sustainable agriculture, we are able to fight veteran isolation, the root cause of suicide as well as integrate with the broader community and strengthen the sustainable agriculture movement.
AH: What is the greatest value it brings to Veterans?
CB:Veterans report that one of their favorites parts of being involved with GV is that it allows them to be part of something larger than themselves again. It also gives them an opportunity to experience camaraderie and experience sustainable agriculture food systems.
AH:Please tell us about the primary activities of Growing Veterans.
CB:Our website is in the process of being updated, so this isn’t entirely accurate, but it does a good job providing a snapshot: growingveterans.org/programs We also grow food and distribute it at VA Hospitals in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, allowing us to provide tasty, nutritious produce to our fellow veterans and care providers.
AH:What are some challenges unique to Veterans wishing to get into farming and how does Growing Veterans help them?
CB:Some primary challenges are access to information or experience, access to resources, and individual barriers that exist due to negative residual effects of military service. We address these by providing opportunities for veterans to experience their local food system through our activities, learn about how to access information and training through our partnerships, connect them to resource support through the Farmer Veteran Coalition, and we specialize in providing peer-support to help veterans address their own barriers that might be stopping them from having a full transition home.
AH:How do you intend to scale and what lies ahead in the coming year for Growing Veterans?
CB:In our 3-5 year plan our goal is to refine the current regional model that we have and build a retreat/training center that will allow us to invite veterans and stakeholders from around the country to come and learn from us. Once that is built and we are regularly training folks in our model, we’d like to see Outposts popping up in other areas of the country. For this year, we will focus on simultaneous and mutually supportive development of our fundraising efforts, VA Markets, Outposts and our Peer-Support structure- as well as looking at promising sites with acreage and infrastructure that can serve as our permanent retreat/training site with the goal to be able to transition into the new “HQ” in time for full scale operations there during the 2016 growing season.
To learn more about Growing Veterans visit: growingveterans.org
Follow on Twitter:@growingveterans
Follow on Instagram: Instagram.com/growingveterans
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