Grant helping Camp McDowell Farm School continue to educate children

NAUVOO - The Camp McDowell Farm School recently purchased a new tractor to replace one the camp has been using since at least 1987 using a $30,000 grant from the Alabama Association of Research, Conservation and Development Councils (AARCDC).

"We are funded by the state legislature," explained Mary Kendall Dixon, AARCDC's communications specialist. "There are nine local RC&D councils and our state office, so we split that money among all ten councils. To apply for a state grant, your project has to affect three or more council areas."

Noopie Cosby of The Cosby Company, a consulting agency that represents AARCDC said the organization has funded over 800 projects across the state this year.

On Nov. 6, Rep. Tim Wadsworth, Economic Developer Dr. Nicole Jones Wadsworth, and representatives of AARCDC, The Cosby Company and the Northwest RC&D Council joined Camp McDowell staff and a newly arrived group of Farm School Students from Jackson, Miss., for the presentation of a $30,000 check and the unveiling of the new tractor.

"I'm glad ya'll are all here, and I appreciate RC&D, for they always select the right spot," Rep. Wadsworth told the crowd.  "My wife Nicole (and I) are just real happy that this worked out. I've been here several times, and each time I've come, I'm always impressed with all the many things you do and what you do for the community to help young people."

"I just want to thank Camp McDowell and all the employees here," he told the Alabamian later. "They do a really good job. They've got a daycare center for their employees here, which is excellent. Teaching young people about farming, about nature, is so critical these days, and it gets them away from a video game."

"In regards to economic development and tourism, not only does Camp McDowell attract people from all over the state of Alabama but also regionally, just to introduce folks to not only farming but just Winston County in general. You have a lot of repeat attendees," said Dr. Wadsworth. "We have some colleagues in Montgomery, for example, who are part of the Episcopalian Church, who send people from their church here annually."

"The RC&D has been fantastic for our organization for the past couple of years," Farm School Director Scotty Feltman said. "You guys are going to meet about a hundred chickens while you're here," he told the students, "and we built a mobile crib (for them after seeking) funds from the RC&D for that. RC&D has also helped us get kids here with scholarships. It's a wonderful organization within not only our community but every community in the state of Alabama.

"We're so appreciative of this (tractor)," Feltman continued. "We know we can do a lot of stuff with this. We've already been moving a little bit of dirt. We'd also like to increase composting--composting is a big thing for us--and having a really useful bucket that has a lot of power will enable us to be able to do that, so we're very excited for that as well."

"I can't tell you how exciting the tractor is because we wouldn't have bought a brand new tractor (without AARCDC)," said Mary Yancey, Camp McDowell's grants administrator, who wrote the application for the AARCDC grant. "We would have made Scotty keep working with that thing that was falling apart, and when it finally fell apart, we would have bought the most used, cheapest (thing we could find), and it would have broken down all the time."

She added, "The morale boost of getting a brand new shiny tractor for Scotty and all of his staff is really invaluable. It feels like Christmas. It's just a great gift all the way around."

The Farm School is one of many programs Camp McDowell has added over the years after starting out life as a church summer camp.

Since 2014, the Farm School has been educating children, teens and their families about regenerative agriculture, gardening, composting, the role and care of farm animals, the connection of our food to living plants and animals, farm-to-table cooking and food waste reduction.

School groups and other youth organizations take part in Farm School either during a one-day field trip or a three-day, two-night stay. The school is open to any age group but is recommended especially for grades 4th-8th.

"(Farm School) has really become just an integral part of everybody's experience (at Camp McDowell)," said Yancy. "The summer campers come up here and see the animals, and they have a family Farm to Table (Retreat) where families can come up and do basically what the kids do but with your family."

She noted, "We are affiliated with the Episcopal Church, but for our educational programs, we do keep organized religion out of it so that everybody feels welcome. We don't have church at the Farm School or the Environmental Center, although we do feel like we are exposing people to the beauty of God's creation. By law, we're not talking about organized religion in any way (in these programs) because of the public school systems that come to us."

The cost of Farm School is reasonable. A day-trip is $45 per student with lunch included, while the longer visit is $170 per night per student. Also, scholarships are available. In addition to those provided by AARCDC, the Walker Area Community Foundation, which Yancey said has always helped fund the school, has given scholarships to Winston and Walker county students and will now also fund Marion County students' visits.

One of the main focuses of the Farm School is regenerative agriculture, a type of agriculture that seeks to restore biological and chemical processes that have been weakened over time.

Regenerative practices at the school include rotational grazing, in which different farm animals are moved to different areas at different times. 

The farm animals include a number of pigs and goats, about 100 barred rock chickens--who have at least one goose that protects them from predators--and two head of Pineywoods cattle, a steer named Oreo and a cow named Caramel.

"(A) big part of what we're doing is getting animals moving behind other animals (in rotational grazing) to increase soil health and then talking to kids about why we're doing that in the long run," said Farm School Director Scotty Feltman.

Moving the animals around the farm allows them to spread what Tristan Hendrix, the Farm School farm manager, called the different "resources" they offer the soil.

 "They'll help clear (the land) too, even the chickens, as small as they are, (because) there's so many of them," Hendrix added.

Composting is another regenerative practice used on the farm. "They have the fly composting for the meat, the regular composting where you have to turn and shift the soil as it moves and then they have worm composting," Yancy said.

Students learn about composting--and get hands-on experience turning the compost and applying it to the garden--during Plant-It Earth, one of the three core classes of Farm School.

"Plant-It Earth is the fully garden-focused class," said Kelly Baker, Farm School program coordinator. "That's taking students around the garden to explore with all their senses and taste different things in the garden, looking at how things are growing so that they can come to some conclusions about how it should be planted, and then they do a planting activity based on the information that they've gathered around the farm, so they're learning and then implementing."

She said when learning about composting, the students learn how the "decomposition process works, what critters and fungus and bacteria are involved, what kind of timeline, what kind of ingredients are needed, and the importance of creating good soil."

She said that on that particular rainy day students "might (also) do some planting in the greenhouse and start some spinach."

Another core class is Farm to Table. Students choose from a selection of recipes based on what vegetables are ready to pick, go into the garden and harvest the ingredients, including herbs, possibly collect eggs as well, and then wash the produce and cook with it.

"I'm sure they're going to harvest some carrots (today) to make carrot muffins," Baker said. "I really like when I teach that class to also harvest some flowers and make little centerpieces for the table."

She noted, "That's such an empowering class. You're more likely to try something (new when) you've had involvement in all the steps of (making) it."

"(It's their) first time cooking, I'm sure, for a bunch of kiddos," Hendrix said. "I didn't learn (to cook) until I started farming."

He added, "We (also) talk about plants as medicine."

The third core class is Farm Fauna, which includes "meeting all the farm animals, (learning how they're cared for, milking the goats) and talking about the roles (the animals) play and their impacts on the farm," Baker said. "Like, these chickens might be food one day, and not a lot of people have to face that or have that kind of perspective of prospective food, so we have those hard conversations with kids and bring that to light."

Like the chickens, the cattle and pigs are also being raised for meat.

Asked about having given the cattle names considering their eventual fate, Baker said, "Scotty has a different approach on (naming food animals) that I've grown to appreciate, and it's that naming an animal that you're going to eat makes it harder for you, but what that also does is typically changes it so that you take better care of an animal. It's better for the animal versus better for us."

"Another big thing is bridging that disconnect (with where meat comes from) because it's really hard for kids to get that understanding of that," Feltman said. "Having those conversations with kids (is important)."

Overall, Farm School is all about "getting kids up close with their food," Hendrix said. "You can't go home and raise cattle in your back yard, but you can have a small garden. I just encourage people to get close to their food because the closer you are, the less that goes into producing it, and it's better for you."

Beyond the three core classes, teachers can also choose from a variety of other farm classes for their students. One is called Hard at Work.

"It's basically just doing a project to help the farm," Baker said. "That might look like mulching or helping pull out dead plants to flip a bed to the next season. We get really good feedback on helping us split firewood because kids get to learn how to use tools safely and then are trusted with (them), and to just see them grow a little taller (with pride), it's really cool."

"It's been amazing, (a) really, really neat program," Feltman said of Farm School. "I'm very proud of it."

Farm School students also get to enjoy activities beyond the farm, including nature hikes, canoeing and campfire singalongs and skits.

Students also write livestock lullabies that they sing to the farm animals while comparing animals' behavior at night with their daytime behavior.

In an activity called Alabama Unplugged, students make popcorn over a fire, make butter in a jar, learn how to use a cross cut saw, make rope on a rope spinner and make bracelets.

The concept of reducing food waste is covered both in farm classes and at mealtimes.

"The goal (is) if you realize how much work goes into getting that food to your plate, then hopefully you'll think a little bit more about your decisions when you decide to throw it away or not eat all of it," Feltman said. "That's a big part of what we're doing, (plus) just giving kids a really positive experience outside."

At mealtimes, children and their chaperones eat family style. Everyone at the table serves themselves from communal bowls, and at the end of the meal, everyone scrapes their leftovers onto one plate and pours their leftover beverages into one glass. Then the food scraps and liquid are weighed and measured. The goal is to decrease the amount of waste from one meal to the next.

"They're trying to teach them to only put as much on their plate as they think they can eat or even a little less because you can always get more," Yancy said. "That's a really important part of what they're learning out here is to be more mindful of waste."

Beyond reducing food waste, Camp McDowell practices sustainability in other ways. Five of their buildings are powered entirely by solar panels, and geothermal tubing under Lake Sloan helps cool some buildings.

Further, Bethany Village, a sort of mini camp within the larger camp, is ADA-compliant, and it is where Camp McDowell holds Bethany's Kids, a camp for children of all abilities as well as Special Session, a camp for adults with disabilities. Two different entities, Hope Heals and Joni and Friends, rent out Bethany Village for a total of seven weeks every summer to hold their own camps for people with disabilities.

"It's a great place to live and work," Hendrix said about Camp McDowell. "We're grateful for RC&D and everything they help us out with."