OSU’s Inwood awarded grant for ag project

Shoshanah Inwood with the Ohio State University-OARDC in Wooster was awarded $119,837 for the project, Whole Farm Planning for the 21st Century: Integrating Childcare, Healthcare and Health Insurance into Farm Planning Curriculum.

Using a train-the-trainer model, this project develops two farmer-ready whole farm curriculum modules on the topics of child care, healthcare and health insurance; trains a cohort of 10 educators to deliver curriculum; and trains 210 educators through webinars, conferences and online library, Inwood said.

Inwood’s project has been named the 2023 Paula Ford Professional Development Program Proposal of the Year. From 1991-97, Dr. Ford served as the program coordinator for the Southern Region SARE program. She was the NCR-SARE professional development program coordinator at Kansas State University for 11 years (1999-2009) and supported sustainable agriculture and SARE for more than 20 years.

To honor Ford’s contributions to NCR-SARE, the administrative council created the Paula Ford Professional Development Program Proposal of the Year award. Each year one professional development program-funded project in the North Central Region is given this special designation. The region selects the project that best exemplifies Ford’s contributions and passion for evaluation, professional development and/or science-based research.

This grant was awarded as part of NCR-SARE’s 2023 Professional Development Program, which emphasizes training agricultural educators in extension, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, private and not-for-profit sectors, using farmers as educators, and addressing emerging issues in the farm community. NCR-SARE administers each of its grant programs, each with specific priorities, audiences and timelines. The focus for each of the NCR-SARE grant programs is on research and education.

Funding considerations are made based on how well the applicant articulates the nature of the research and education components of their sustainable agriculture grant proposals.