In February, the Farmer Veteran Coalition will be celebrating fourteen years of operation! Our Founder, Michael O’Gorman’s vision became our mission, which has now turned into this incredible movement! What an impact one person can make when planting the seeds of hope!
As the National FVC office continues to start up additional state chapters this year, you can feel this movement gain momentum. FVC State Chapters are the future of organization, and the staff at the head office in Waco, Texas are working hard to develop the programs our members have stated they need to support not only chapter development and their grassroot efforts with fellow veterans, but to assist our members with the continued growth and expansion of their agricultural operations.
One of our goals at the Farmer Veteran Coalition is to meet our beginning farmers and ranchers where they are at in their business life cycle and assist them in reaching their next goal. Our members success is our success, and to that end, we continue to seek technical assistance grants for software improvements to enhance our new national programming for mentorship, food safety, volunteer programs, market access and procurement, and capital and land access.
FVC’s continues to grow many of our original programs, which we are now scaling due to our membership growth each year. The Fellowship Fund continues to secure additional funders, and with each new funding cycle FVC volunteers review an increased volume of applications and award more veterans the funds they need to secure equipment and grow their operations. Also, FVC recently partnered with MarketMaker which is an online platform that assists consumers, corporations, as well as state and federal agencies to locate veteran farmers by location or crop type. This new partnership has increased market access for our Farmer Veterans and especially our certified Homegrown By Heroes label users. If you have not already done so, please make sure to build your farm profile soon—there is even a grocery cart option for sales!
SAVE THE DATE
THE FVC Annual Stakeholder Conference will be held in conjunction with the National Agricultural Marketing Summit this year in Arlington, VA. The Conference will run from November 12th through the 14th.
Sponsorship and Exhibit packages will be made available shortly. If you have an interest in receiving one, please email me at Jeanette@farmvetco.org and I will make sure to get one to you. I know that we can count on your support.
Next Month—- social media influencers and podcasts!
Stay tuned—2023 will be an amazing year.
