Entrepreneurial Leadership Development

Hey Hey,

So we are applying for an Oregon Campus Compact Learn and Serve Grant and we see this as a good opportunity to share some of our educational plans in more detail. This portion of the project would likely take on the name Reed Sustainable Food Collaborative. Please Check out the Educational Initiatives statement below:

Community Needs:
The Reed Sustainable Food Collaborative (RSFC) Educational Initiative seeks to fulfill the needs of the Greater Portland Community for increased community food security, youth entrepreneurial training, and Green Collar Job opportunities for low-income youth through the management of a sustainable urban agriculture business. Given the conditions of the current economic crisis, it is more necessary than ever that our inner-city youth develop the entrepreneurial skills necessary for creative innovation and economic self-sufficiency in a time of scarcity. These are skills that we all possess, but rarely learn how to access. It is also more necessary than ever that our urban youth have access to nutritious and natural food and that they occupy an integral position in their local food value chains.

By combining educational initiatives in sustainable urban agriculture and sustainable economic activity in the form of entrepreneurship, the RSFC seeks to nurture the latent leadership skills that all youth possess, but that few feel an adequate sense of agency to fully exercise. The opportunity for youth to grow food from seed, and the opportunity for youth to grow businesses from nothing but a small investment are perhaps the greatest two opportunities to cultivate a sense of agency in our urban youth.

Project Proposal:
The RSFC educational program would have three integrated functions:
1. Educational Day Programs
2. Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship Program
3. Production Farm Program

1. Educational Day Programs (entrepreneurship and financial stability)
The Educational Day Programs would consist of small 2-3 hour-long school trips that would be focused on a variety of skills such as gardening, composting, cooking, preserving, nutrition and food policy, with a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship and creative approaches to financial stability. These programs would involve guided activities, and guided work time on the farm. The target group would be youth aged 6-16. During the school year these programs would be weekend and after-school programs. Programs would utilize the skills of RSFC Educational Program staff, and other members of the community would be able to participate through SEEDS work-study and volunteer programs. Youth would be sought out through local schools, afterschool programs, and local youth-oriented non-profits.

2. Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship Program (comprehensive business, management and leadership)
The Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship program would seek 15-20 gifted high school students aged 16-18 who exhibit notable leadership capabilities but might not otherwise have employment during the school year or summer, and who might not have opportunities to explore their leadership capabilities. Programs would run for three-month intervals: March-May, June-August, and September-November. During the school year, work would be on a smaller scale and occur after school and on weekends. Adapting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model to the urban environment, entrepreneurial apprentices would each be responsible for a small CSA plot in a customer’s backyard. This ‘CSA In Your Backyard’ model would allow CSA members to purchase a custom vegetable share to be planted and managed directly in their backyard by an entrepreneurial apprentice. Each entrepreneurial apprentice would be responsible for: planning and planting the garden; harvesting a weekly share of vegetables and leaving it at the member’s home; submitting budgets for any expenses incurred through the initial planting and construction stages; providing invoices to CSA members, tracking inventories, and tracking surplus harvests to be sold through the channels of the central RSFC production farm (surplus harvests would be paid back to CSA members on a per pound basis). Entrepreneurial Apprentices (#1 above) would also be encouraged to consider community involvement as an integral part of their business by encouraging CSA members to participate in the ‘plant a row’ campaign of the Oregon Food Bank. Apprentices would then dedicate a portion of their backyard CSA plot to weekly soup kitchen donation, traveling to donate the vegetables themselves.

With the use of Reed College Facilities, RSFC staff would provide extensive training to Entrepreneurial Apprentices in business management skills including the use of Microsoft Excel for financial purposes, Microsoft Office and Quickbooks. Training would also include a focus on client communication and public speaking, long-term business planning, and creative group leadership. The Reed Farm would serve as an educational site for the development of agricultural skills. All Entrepreneurial Apprentices would divide their time between their individual backyard CSA plots and the main production farm—emphasizing the integrated purposes of individual entrepreneurship and cooperative entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial Apprentices would be guided in all capacities necessary for running their own small business, and diligently supported throughout the process by RSFC staff.

Apprentices would be paid a weekly salary. Taking a cooperative-competition approach to entrepreneurial development from the microfinance model introduced by Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank , Apprentices would be encouraged to use each other for support and as learning resources with a structure of communal incentive and responsibility: With a total of 15-20, Apprentices would be assigned to groups of five and given bonuses each month based on an evenly divided numerical assessment of the group’s aggregate profit generated (mainly from surplus), customer satisfaction, financial diligence and innovation. At the end of each 3-month session the entire group of Apprentices would receive evenly divided bonuses based on the aggregate assessment of the above factors. This sort of cooperative incentive model for competition would encourage collaboration and creative innovation while also emphasizing the importance of an entrepreneur’s responsibility to themselves and their community.

3. Production Farm Program
With the Production Farm Program the Reed Production Farm would be run by RSFC staff and Entrepreneurial Apprentices. The majority of farm output would go directly to the on-campus buyer with a pre-established farm account: Bon Appetit Management Company. Staff and Apprentices would work together to suit Bon Appetit’s needs on a dynamic basis. Additional output would go to a weekly Farmer’s Market stand at the PSU Farmer’s Market where a rotating group of apprentices would be supervised by a staff member in selling farm products and informing members of the community about the activities of the RSFC.

Because the RSFC is a business on it’s own, the project would remain relatively self-sufficient after the initial costs of developing and implementing the program through it’s early stages. The RSFC campus organization would provide continuous member input and volunteer opportunities. The Reed alumni community would serve as a valuable resource for curriculum development and business advisement. Reed’s community outreach organization, SEEDS, would provide oversight and volunteer management and matching. And the on-campus theme house Homestead House would serve as an onsite annex to the farm community, inhabited by instrumental members of the RSFC staff. All of these elements would ensure the longevity of the program during and after the peak of grant funding.

RSFC Community Education Priorities
The RSFC seeks to combine community involvement with socially responsible entrepreneurship, community food security education, and youth leadership development. By deploying Entrepreneurial Apprentices into the Portland community to run their own small urban agriculture businesses, we are reminding them and their clients of the importance of small local businesses and supporting local economies. We are also integrating this emphasis with an emphasis on the importance of community food security, environmental responsibility and urban food systems. The connection between small-scale sustainable urban agriculture and small-scale sustainable entrepreneurship is extremely powerful—the essentials of human physical survival paired with the essentials of human economic survival.

The RSFC also seeks to create Green Collar jobs where the human spirit of entrepreneurship is nurtured alongside the human spirit or community responsibility and cooperation through creative leadership. Even if the RSFC Entrepreneurial Apprentices do not all go on to run their own businesses, they will be better equipped to manage their financial, educational, and community responsibilities to others and themselves. Our intention is to foster in Portland’s youth a sense of agency that will allow them not only to lead their generation, but to share the knowledge that each of us is already capable of leadership.

To conclude, this project links the two Learn and Serve America priorities: campus-community connections and student leadership development. Our apprenticeship programs are specifically designed to foster and enhance leadership skills for participating students. In addition, RSFC Educational Programs would be a great asset to the Reed College campus community and the greater Portland community, and serve to bring the two closer together in an attempt to model creative solutions to the challenges of our 21st century economy, environment and urban landscapes. This program can serve as a replicable model for campuses and youth in the community throughout the state of Oregon and even the nation.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our mission. If you want to get involved, support us, or find out more about what's going on please contact Sam Biddle: sbiddle@reed.edu

Thanks for your support and interest!

Love, The Farm :)