The p.e.a.c.h. Farm School Apprentice Program

Whole Farm Internships: Innovative Training for Successful Future Farmers
at the P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm

The long-term goal of offering internships at the P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm is to preserve farmland in the Spokane region by revitalizing our threatened agrarian resources. We are blessed with a rich agrarian heritage, but development pressures are causing farmland to to be lost. Viable farms are the best defense to this. We preserve farmland by providing a program for people to learn farming skills from experienced mentors and become farmers themselves. The objectives of the project are to provide farmer education to new and beginning farmers, including those of limited resources, and provide them with practical skills, access to farm employment, farm land and entrepreneurial opportunity.

We offer several types of internships:

1. We host interns who are finishing coursework for accredited institutions of higher learning (Interns commute)

2. We employ young people who are new to the world of employment in partnership with the the Next Generation Zone (Spokane Area Workforce Development Council, a WorkSource Spokane Affiliate), a provider of employment and training services (Interns commute).

3. P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm Apprentiship Program: Individuals may enroll in a multi-year farm immersion curriculum. By the time apprentices graduate, they will have designed a business plan and obtained start-up financing to begin a farming operation on land for which a lease has been negotiated (from the P.e.a.c.h. Land Bank database). Alternatively, p.e.a.c.h. assists graduates in finding a farm employer prior to graduation (interns commute, in 2013 we may be able to offer live-in accomodations).

Not only do we need more farmers, but we need some of these farmers committed to growing food for low-income consumers. Food prices are on the rise and public health experts recognize how steady consumption of farm-fresh foods keeps families healthy. According to Spokane Regional Health District, a large portion (26.3%) of the population of Spokane County lives at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Level. Non-profit food production modeled by the P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm is one way to assure that there is a supply of farm-fresh foods to serve low-income families. Graduates from the P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm Apprenticeship Program will be the new farmers needed to expand non-profit food production in the region.

We introduce a wide variety of people to farm work as a career option, some who are just passing through, others who enroll in our program. Exposing those just passing through to what work is like on a diversified organic farm is one way to incrementally improve the viability of the regional farm sector by priming the farm employment pump. Having new farmers start new farms is a way to move ahead quickly with revitalizing the local food system.

Details of the P.e.a.c.h. Community Farm Apprenticeship Program will be available soon.

Please contact us if you are interested in our programs.