July 2016 – This summer, Sarah Miller has found that her work with Kenny Bailey in the Cumberland County Cooperative Extension office has allowed her to blend her studies in marketing with her interest and background in farming. Sarah’s family farm grows row crops, so while she knew a good bit about cotton and soybeans, she has enjoyed learning about produce farming: “Produce is very different from row crops, so in that aspect, I understand the general idea of farming, just not this sector, so it’s expanded my knowledge of farming as a whole.”
Additionally, Sarah’s work with her marketing club at Campbell University has prepared her for updating the local food guide, which she has expanded by adding a seasonality guide, pictures, hyperlinks, hours of operation, and other useful details for people who are interested in purchasing local food. Adding pictures has also given her an opportunity to do farm visits, where she has enjoyed meeting local farmers and learning about their different farming practices.
Sarah has also been working on creating a logo and marketing plan to advertise relationships between growers and restaurants and planning for “speed dating” events which will help support and facilitate those relationships. To lay the groundwork for those events, she has been meeting one-on-one with restaurants, helping to connect them with local produce. Sarah knows that a lot of the work she is doing will be important for future projects, so that is something that has inspired her, throughout her apprenticeship.
This article originally appeared in the July 2016 NC Growing Together Newsletter.