April served in the Air Force for 29 years. Her primary duties were in the space operations career field. Later in her career she served in various management roles, deployed to Afghanistan with the Army and eventually received orders to Eielson AFB, Alaska. There, she served the fighter operations community in a leadership role. She retired out of Eielson and chose to live in Fairbanks, Alaska.
"FVC has supported me immensely in just the past couple of years. I became a member, I was awarded a Fellowship Fund award and most recently helped to form an Alaska Chapter of FVC! The support and camaraderie of doing the work to grow food has been a huge source of encouragement and I also think the visibility and promotion is helping other farmer vets to realize they can do this too!"
Growing Roots Farm is an effort to establish roots after serving and to be a part of the local food network solution. They serve their local community as a small farm by providing fresh eggs, hatching winter hardy chicks, and selling market vegetables and fruits and honey. Their goal is to do their part to increase Alaskan Food Security.
"In 2018 we bought our dream property in Fairbanks, Alaska. We established our small hobby farm and it has continued to evolve over the last several years. Our dreams are big and with a short 110-day growing season in a zone 2/3 everything we do needs to count. Or we wait until the next year to try again. The challenge of living in a sub-arctic region is hard. But the challenge of growing in a sub-arctic region is even harder. We not only accept the challenge, but we thrive on it. It may sound crazy, but the challenge is the main driver to persist. To continue to find a way. The military taught us that. And currently with the fact that Alaska has a food insecurity issue, it gives all the more reason why we must succeed. Not just to grow our own food, but to now grow enough to feed others as well. Supporting Alaska and the local community we live in drives us to be a part of the food solution. That is our new service. And that is being an American farmer."
