Half a Million Dollar USDA Grant to Fund Sustainable Agriculture and Landscape Training

Kalamazoo Valley Community College has been awarded a $497,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a new set of programs that will train the next generation of workers in sustainable agriculture and landscape management.

The three-year project, funded through USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Education and Workforce Development program, will gather input from industry partners to identify in-demand skills for available jobs, and then draw on the expertise of Kalamazoo Valley’s faculty in the sciences, agri-foods and trades to design accessible and effective new coursework focusing on agriculture, horticulture and landscape management.

The program area will include non-credit short courses for current professionals, available as soon as the Fall 2021 semester, and a new certificate and associate degree program in Sustainable Systems for Horticulture, Agriculture, and Urban Landscapes (SSHAUL) that will launch in 2023. Courses will use Kalamazoo Valley’s urban and suburban campuses as lab space, and the program will include internship, apprenticeship and work opportunities. “We are thrilled to have USDA’s support for this project, which will leverage college resources to build a high-quality program for learners in our community,” Kalamazoo Valley President Dr. L. Marshall Washington said.

The program will build upon the interdisciplinary approach of the health-food-sustainability cluster of programs housed at the Bronson Healthy Living Campus (BHLC), which celebrates its five-year anniversary in spring 2021. The BHLC was envisioned as a catalyst for development and workforce training that would prepare students to solve complex, interdisciplinary challenges. Already on the campus, students in culinary arts courses help run an urban farm, and students in nursing courses learn about the college’s Food as Medicine curriculum.

In the new SSHAUL program, students will gain skills for managing landscapes and growing crops that can reduce the impacts of climate change, produce food, and support sustainable businesses. “We are launching this program at a time of great change and great opportunity in our world and the green industry,” said Kalamazoo Valley’s Director for Sustainable Food Systems Rachel Bair. “Landscape and agriculture jobs are safe, essential and critical to the future. We’re seeing great demand for skilled workers and wide opportunity for entrepreneurship in these fields.”

In June, Dr. Sara Tanis will join Kalamazoo Valley as the full-time program director for the SSHAUL program. Tanis brings extensive teaching experience in horticulture, forestry, and urban ecology with a strong commitment to student success. “I am excited to support students finding career paths that will also build resilience in our community,” she said. “I’m also excited about joining the team at Kalamazoo Valley. I’ve long been impressed with the college’s focus on sustainability and I’m anxious to get started.”

Industry partners are also being sought for advisory roles on the project. Robert Welch, the former director of the Horticulture and Landscape Management program at Lansing Community College, said he has been eager to see a program like this in Southwest Michigan, and will he be assisting with curriculum development. “The Green Industry is growing and changing, and Michigan needs an accessible and relevant program to meet employers’ needs,” Welch says. Interested industry partners can email robert.welch@kvcc.edu to get involved.

Non-credit programming will be available by contract with local employers and for open enrollment by fall of 2021. The grant funding will provide scholarships for the first cohort of students who enroll in the degree program in 2023.

For more information, contact Bair at rbair@kvcc.edu.

Sign up to receive updates as the program develops at kvcc.edu/valleyhub/sshaul.

This work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, AFRI Rapid Response to Novel Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2): Innovating Formal and Non-Formal Educational Experiences in Food and Agricultural Sciences During the Time of Social Distancing Priority Area, award #2021-67038-34209.