Connecticut FVC chapter president Jared McCool, a Marine Corps Veteran, was among 10 Farmer Veterans featured in the mini-documentary “Served Then, Still Serving Now.”
The Connecticut Veteran Grown program is sharing the stories of persevering Farmer Veterans in the state with an inspirational mini-documentary.
The 17½-minute mini-documentary, “Served Then, Still Serving Now,” produced by Crosscourt Media, presents 10 Farmer Veterans at their farms, talking about their hopes and challenges, and how farming provides a new opportunity to serve.
Among those featured is FVC Connecticut state chapter president Jared McCool, a Marine Corps Veteran who owns Steadfast Farms, a game bird production and processing farm in Bethlehem, Connecticut.
“Even though we were each interviewed separately at our farms, the cool thing was we all told similar stories as Veteran farmers,” McCool said. “Much like our call to serve our country, that same dedication and purpose to serve our communities is there.”
The video is part of a larger marketing campaign with the Connecticut Veteran Grown program, according to Amanda Fargo-Johnson, agricultural programs director with the Connecticut Resource Conservation & Development Area, Inc. (CT RC&D).
“It’s been getting a lot of attention,” she said, since it launched on YouTube and the Connecticut Veteran Grown website on Veterans Day. All the Farmer Veterans featured are Homegrown by Heroes producers and utilize a blended Homegrown by Heroes/Connecticut Veteran Grown logo.
The Program
Connecticut Veteran Grown is a three-year program designed to give the state’s Farmer Veterans marketing assistance and resources in an effort to help them succeed. The program is funded through a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration and is administered by CT RC&D.
The project has two key strategies: the first offers one-on-one marketing assistance and has a resource hub on the website; the second promotes Farmer Veterans across Connecticut with a marketing campaign, Fargo-Johnson explained.
CT RC&D is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helped get the Connecticut FVC chapter launched, Fargo-Johnson and McCool said. Because the FVC chapter doesn’t have 501(c)(3) status, CTRC&D is able to apply for programs like Small Business Administration grants that allocate money to economically disadvantaged groups, such as Farmer Veterans.
McCool approached CT RC&D about a solar energy project a few years ago and with Fargo-Johnson saw there were areas where it could aid Farmer Veterans.
The Connecticut Department of Agriculture, for example, had a Connecticut Grown logo. The FVC chapter was able to work with the department to co-brand it with the Homegrown by Heroes logo for the state.
“We have a lot of different organizations coming together to help Veterans,” he said.
CT RC&D also has helped farms to establish their own websites and works to connect customers to Veterans’ farms.
Another grant, she said, enables the FVC chapter to serve as a consultant to CT RC&D, providing farmer mentors for its FarmUP initiative, which helps beginning farmers get started.
McCool is a fan of FarmUP.
“That program is phenomenal in itself, but FVC was able to bolt onto it,” McCool said. “We can align you with an experienced farmer in your field and mentor you over a three-year plan. There are stipends for the mentor and the mentee, and it can cover some start-up expenses.”
The three-year Connecticut Veteran Grown program is about at the halfway point, Fargo-Johnson said. McCool said he hopes to find stakeholders willing to continue those efforts even if there isn’t grant money for it in the future.
Joanne Charon, who served in Air Force and Navy, is interviewed at her farm, Autumn Harvest Orchard, for the Connecticut Veteran Grown mini-documentary.
Mini-documentary
The mini-doc promoting Connecticut Farmer Veterans was a large undertaking for Emily DeLuca with Crosscourt Media. DeLuca had worked with CT RC&D on other videos before, but this project involved visiting each of the farms and doing interviews with the Veterans.
“All the farms were beautiful,” she said. “I loved going to the different farms, and it was moving to hear their stories.”
McCool believes the documentary caught the essence of the Veterans’ stories even among the messiness of day-to-day farm life.
“She even made me look good,” McCool joked.
The Veterans in the video reflect all service branches except Space Force, and the crops raised at the various farms will represent all four seasons, she added.
DeLuca’s crew was tasked with shooting both documentary and commercial video. Fargo-Johnson said Crosscourt Media also will create promotional videos for each of the 10 farms and is doing additional videos that will be tied to the seasons. The winter video is available on Connecticut Veterans Grown’s YouTube channel.
For DeLuca, who served as director, her favorite part of the process is the post-production, pulling together all the interviews and video to tell the story. The video includes moving music composed by Madison Anglin, a friend who was in graduate school with DeLuca at New York University.
“With the video I want to create something that the viewer will feel in a way that stays with them,” DeLuca said.
Andrew Lathrop waits to be interviewed for the mini-documentary on his Lathrop Farm property.
McCool said the Connecticut Veteran Grown program is not just sharing the Farmer Veterans’ stories, but also helps connect them to customers.
“Those are professional marketing images that can be used on the farms’ websites and social media platforms to help promote themselves,” McCool said.
A searchable map on the ctveterangrown.org website shows a few locations of Veteran farms statewide.
“We’re working to ratchet that number up,” Fargo-Johnson said. “A lot of this is getting word out about the brand and promoting Veteran farms.”
McCool agrees.
“The USDA estimated about 900 active Veterans farming across the state,” McCool said, noting that the documentary and upcoming videos, along with the Connecticut Veteran Grown website, are efforts to get more Veteran farms involved with the program.
“We consistently have farms reaching out to us,” McCool said. “We have a good spread of different farms across the state, whether it’s meat, poultry, horticulture, maple syrup and more.”
Website: https://ctveterangrown.org/
