The transplanting traditions community farm (TTCF) is a non-profit organization in the piedmont region of north carolina that offers a farm incubator and robust agricultural production, business and…

The Transplanting Traditions Community Farm (TTCF) will receive $666,968 under a Project Grant award from the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service. The grant is part of the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP), which supports expanding local and regional food systems.

TTCF will use the funding to establish the Transplanting Traditions Producer Hub (TTPH) to provide specialized services that improve business efficiency and expand marketing opportunities for refugee farmers in North Carolina. Specifically, TTPH will aggregate customer management, food distribution, and provide trainings on topics like crop succession planning and food safety analysis. This aims to increase refugee farmer skills and sales to new markets like community supported agriculture programs and online sales. The hub also intends to boost access to locally grown, culturally appropriate food for low-income refugee communities in the Piedmont region. Overall, the funding supports continued business development for a refugee farmer producer network in North Carolina.

The transplanting traditions community farm (TTCF) is a non-profit organization in the piedmont region of north carolina that offers a farm incubator and robust agricultural production, business and marketing programs serving 100% limited resource and socially disadvantaged refugee farmers from burma. Refugee farmers bring immeasurable farming skills and strong work ethic, and offer a chance to address some of the aging farmer and consolidated farming challenges in the US, but refugee farmers face a host of challenges to success, including language, cultural and literacy barriers, which limit their access to specific customers and markets. In order to address these issues, TTCF will diversify and expand refugee marketing opportunities and expand its existing aggregated customer management and food distribution services through the formation of the transplanting traditions producer hub (TTPH). TTPH will provide specialized services needed to improve business efficiency, and increase marketing opportunities that will support business growth and aggregate customer management and local food distribution to the growing network of refugee farmers throughout north carolina. Through trainings and technical assistance this project expects to increase refugee farmers' skills and capacity around marketing barriers such as crop succession planning and food safety risk analysis; expand refugee farmer production and sales to new markets including CSA, online sales, farmers markets, wholesale, and more; increase access to FRE locally-grown, culturally appropriate food to low-income refugee and asian communities throughout the piedmont region; and build a hub that supports continued business development and success for a refugee farmer producer network (RPN) in NC.