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 summer, Claire McLendon has had the opportunity to join her interests in local food and flow charts to help Karla Capacetti, of Farmer Foodshare in Durham, and Gabriel Cummings, of Working Landscapes in Warren County.

Claire, who worked for eight years as a UNC Library employee, has been excited to find that her background in library systems and documentation has helped her navigate the complicated realm of food safety regulations. After a great deal of research and reading on HAACP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and GAP requirements, Claire has been putting her knowledge to work to help the Chopped Produce Initiative, which sells bagged chopped collards and cabbage to local schools and institutions. Her major goal for the summer was to produce food safety documentation needed for the initiative to expand their sales.

While Claire is interested in many aspects of sustainable farming and local food systems, she is particularly invested in what goes on behind the scenes: "I really love flow charts...I don't want to be a small produce farmer, I'm not outdoorsy, but at the same time, I care passionately about sustainable agriculture and food systems, so it's nice to see something that I can contribute to, while basically being an IT nerd." As her apprenticeship continues, Claire is excited to continue work on the Chopped Produce Initiative, in addition to doing further research on GAP certification and inventory and distribution systems.