Greetings from  Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.  My name is Alex Sanders and I am the Field Representative for Grow Appalachia at Project Worth Outreach. 

As we begin our second year as a part of Grow Appalachia we are so excited to get  to work in 2013.  We considered last year to be a very successful year but we are expecting a much greater impact this year.  To this end, we held our informational meeting last night, February 28, 2013.  We are targeting 30-35 families in Menifee County this year and we had 23 families show up last night of which 12 signed contracts.   Of the 12 families that signed up last night 5 were new families and we expect several more new families to sign up before our next meeting.   We are confident that as we continue recruiting we will not have a problem meeting our targeted goal. We believe that 2012 was a good year for us as it was our first year with Grow Appalachia but we are expecting bigger and better results in 2013.  One of the reasons we have this belief is because we have decided to expand into neighboring Rowan County.   Our informational meeting in Rowan County is scheduled for 6 PM on February 12, 2013.  We have held several individual meetings in Rowan County that have resulted in partnerships with Sustainable Morehead Community Garden, Helping Hands Food Bank Community Garden and approximately 6 individual gardens out of a targeted goal of 10-15.  Also, I was invited by Dr. Robert Boram, Professor of Physics and Science Education, Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics at Morehead State University to speak to his advanced gardening class about Project Worth Outreach’s Grow Appaalachia Gardening Project and how his class could be of benefit to us.  It was an interesting experience.  As a result of this experience, we picked up 3 new gardeners and an agreement for Dr. Boram’s class to grow us 3 greenhouses full of plants for our gardeners in both Menifee and Rowan counties.  I would say that was well worth my time and besides that, I had a great time with these students.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for today.   Luck to all as we begin our 2013 gardening projects.  Happy gardening.