Delmarva farmers may apply for scholarships by Dec. 14
The Historic Lewes Farmers Market scholarship program is accepting applications from small Delmarva farmers who are interested in learning more about sustainable practices and focused on growing for the local market.
Several $500 scholarships will be awarded to small Delmarva farmers to attend sustainable farming conferences including these conferences in the mid-Atlantic: the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Farming for the Future Conference set Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 1-4, in State College, Pa.; Future Harvest CASA Conference set Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 12-14, in College Park, Md.; and similar conferences such as the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference set Tuesday-Thursday, Jan. 31-Feb. 2, in Hershey, Pa.
These conferences draw farmers interested in education about sustainable agriculture practices from a broad section of the east coast, mid-Atlantic and the south with similar growing conditions to the Delmarva. For more information about the conferences, go to www.pasafarming.org, www.futureharvestcasa.org and www.mafvc.org.
The Historic Lewes Farmers Market has established an emerging women farmers' scholarship fund in memory of Debra Schaefer who died in August, 2016. Schaefer was a sustainable farmer in Frankford. Three additional $500 scholarships are available to emerging women farmers this year. Applicants should indicate that they are applying for one of the emerging women farmers scholarship.
To be eligible, the Delmarva farmer must: be currently be developing a sustainable farming enterprise, or currently farming, on the Delmarva Peninsula; currently operate a small farm (low-sales) as defined by the Economic Research Service for the United States Department of Agriculture (less than $350,000 gross in agricultural sales), on the Delmarva Peninsula, or be able to demonstrate financial need to attend this conference; currently be a farmer-grower who sells what they grow, raise or produce on their own farm.
A farmer-grower may be a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation and shall include family members and employees who assist in the production and/or sales and marketing of the farm products; commit to attend the Lewes farmers market farmer's workshop to be held in the spring and share what was learned at the conference so that information may be disseminated to other farmers.
Completed applications are due by Wednesday, Dec. 14. All scholarship applicants will be notified of awards by Wednesday, Jan. 4. For more information and to receive an application, call 302-644-1436 or email HistoricLewesFarmersMarket@comcast.net.
