Facebook Fan Page

We've started utilizing our Facebook Fan Page for updates on PMP. To keep up with what's going on be sure to search for our Pilot Mountain Pride fan page. We currently have over 300 followers!

Charles Boles, Director

PMP's Director is Charles Boles. Charles is best known as a former horticulture instructer at Surry Community College and is a farmer. Charles came on board with PMP approximately a year ago and began talking to local farmers about potentially participating with PMP. Charles' hard work has yielded the participation of many local farmers. On a day-to-day basis, Charles is responsible for coordinating with participating farmers on harvesting of produce and works with Bill Imus on scheduling farmer deliveries to PMP and end users. Charles is also responsible for setting pricing each week on the produce that is sold through PMP. Charles is responsible for cultivating PMP's relationship with Lowes Foods beginning last winter. Charles loves serving local farmers.

Bill Imus, Facility Coordinator

PMP's day-to-day operations are overseen by Bill Imus. Bill brings many years of varying experience to PMP. He has been a local farmer for over 20 years selling directly to restaurants in the greater Winston-Salem area. Prior to this Bill was a chef working in the hotel industry then owning his own restaurant in Winston-Salem. Following his stint as a chef Bill followed his passion to begin growing and providing high quality produce to other chefs in the area. With all of this experience Bill knows what end users expect in the way of quality produce and is a good fit for PMP. In addition to running the facility Bill is working on developing market in the greater Winston-Salem area in respect to restaurants and institutions.

Upcoming Events

Every Thursday around 12:30pm, PMP has a market open to the public at the Farm Bureau office in Dobson. On Fridays, while supplies last, PMP is open to the public at it's facility in Pilot Mountain starting at 8:00am.

On Saturday, July 10th, from Noon until 4pm, PMP and a few of it's farmers will be holding a market at the Lowes Foods store on Robinhood Road in Winston-Salem. On Saturday, July 17th, we will be doing the same at the Lowes Foods store in Mount Airy during the same time. Come see us, buy some produce, and speak to some great local farmers!

On Wednesday, July 7th, from 9am until 10am, Bryan Cave and Chris Knopf will be J.R.'s guests on 600 WSJS to discuss how PMP evolved into what it is today.

PMP and Lowes Foods

Today, a limited amount of PMP produce was available at Lowes Foods stores in Winston-Salem (Robinhood Road), Mount Airy, and King. At the Winston-Salem store the produce was available at noon today with much of it being sold by late afternoon; a great start for this program. Next week PMP produce will available on a wider scale at many of the stores in the greater Winston-Salem area.

Also today, Dick McKellogg, VP at Lowes Foods, visited the farms of a number of farmers participating with PMP. Mr. McKellogg discussed the expectations that his company has in regards to quality while farmers showed off their produce crops. All in all the visits went very well. Be sure to look for PMP produce at Lowes Foods.

PMP Grand Opening, May 20th

Find us on Facebook with the link below and check out all of the great photos from our Grand Opening celebration held on May 20th!

PMP on Facebook

Troxler Visits PMP

On May 13th, NC Secretary of Agriculture Steve Troxler paid a visit to PMP. The PMP team was able to give the Secretary a tour of the facility and some background on how the project came to fruitition. Following his visit to PMP he visited a number of local farmers who are participating with PMP.

Farmers visit Lowes/MDI Distribution Center

A couple of weeks back PMP farmers visited the distribution facility for Lowes Foods and MDI in Hickory, NC. These farmers had an opportunity to see first hand the quality of produce that Lowes and MDI require to be processed through their facility. Thanks to Lowes and MDI's gracious hospitality our farmers are better prepared to service the local market with quality,locally grown produce.

Young Farmers

One of the goals of PMP was to encourage more young people to consider agriculture and growing produce as a possible career opportunity. Agriculture represents 25% of our local economy and 20% of the local workforce. However, in our area the average age of a local farmer is 60 and the average value of land and equipment on a medium sized farm is $650,000. With farmers starting to age out and with the value of equipment and land very high it is near impossible for a young person to gain access to the necessary capital to start growing produce. PMP offers a solution for young farmers by allowing them to start on a small scale with as little as a quarter acre. With PMP marketing the produce as well as providing equipment for washing, grading, and storage, the need for capital is greatly reduced. A few young people are growing a number of varieties of produce on limited acreage to gain experience and knowledge. Growing on such a small scale would not be possible in the existing market place because produce brokers will only deal with large scale operations. With the money they earn from selling their produce to PMP, over time they can gain access to more land and equipment and grow their operation. Finally, with 20% of the workforce in our area dependent on local farms for jobs, and with the average age of the farmers themselves at 60, it is imperative to get more young people involved and aware of local agricultural opportunities.

Tobacco Trust Fund, Grants

Late last week PMP staff was notified that it had been awarded a $75,000 grant from the NC Tobacco Trust Fund. This was great news as PMP awaits word on two additional grant applications later this month. To date PMP staff has leveraged over $315,000 in grants, $100,000 of in-kind contributions, and $70,000 from Surry County!

New Photos of the PMP Facility

Moving Continues, Grocery Chain Tour

Today saw the delivery of the first major piece of equipment. The wash line will enable all produce through the facility to be washed and graded before being packaged for delivery to end users. In the coming weeks more equipment will be setup in the facility as well as a number of coolers and freezers. Last week PMP staff hosted a tour of top executives with one of North Carolina's largest grocery store chains. The tour was a great success so stay tuned for more details in the weeks ahead! Finally, tonight local farmers are receiving GAP training at Surry Community College to prepare them for growing and selling produce to local markets. The training in April is the second series of sessions being conducted at the college. By the end of the month 60+ local farmers will have received GAP training free of charge.

Facebook

Look for PMP on Facebook!

PMP Partners

To date, PMP has received financial assistance from the Golden LEAF Foundation, North Carolina Department of Agriculture (NCDA), and the Surry County Farm Bureau Board. Golden LEAF funded the recently completed up-fit to the agriculture center and awarded a second grant to PMP from its Local Foods Inititative. NCDA awarded a grant that is being utilized for equipment, supplies, and labor. The Surry County Farm Bureau Board agreed to buy PMP its initial round of equipment which includes a wash line, ice machine, and scales. Wake Forest University School of Law has provided legal services as an in-kind contribution to PMP; this assistance has been invaluable. These partners have enabled this project to continue moving forward; more funding requests are pending and those outcomes should be known in the coming weeks. Of course this project is what it is today because of the approximately 60 farmers who have agreed to market their produce through PMP.

Moving Days Commence, GAP Training

Today started a multi-week process of moving equipment, furniture, supplies, etc. into the Pilot Mountain Pride facility. This week saw the first round of GAP training sessions come to a close for particpating farmers. A second round of training begins in April for farmers participating with PMP as well as those who are not. Finally, the PMP website is up and running and provides contact information for the PMP staff.

PMP in the Mount Airy News

The Mount Airy News ran a story on PMP last week. Check it out by clicking here.

PMP on TV

Fox 8 News out of High Point ran a story on PMP during their evening newscast on Friday, March 19th. Check it out by clicking here.

Busy Week

Tonight's activities usher in a full week for the Pilot Mountain Pride staff. GAP training continues tonight at Surry Community College in Dobson for participating farmers; this meeting is the second one to be held in the training series. Also this week construction on the agriculture center will be completed and the staff will begin moving in equipment and supplies and preparing for the grand opening in May. Early last week the PMP staff led a number of community leaders through the facilty as a way of spreading the word about this great initiative. Included in this post are a few pictures from those visits.

GAP Training Starts Tonight!

Beginning tonight farmers participating with Pilot Mountain Pride will begin receiving training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). GAP is a collection of principles to apply for on-farm production and post-production processes, resulting in safe and healthy food and non-food agricultural products, while taking into account economical, social and environmental sustainability. GAP is a necessity when selling local produce to restaurants, grocers, and institutions in the greater Winston-Salem area.

Farmers Signing Up!

The project has begun in earnest. Our business model for year one was based on 20 local farm families signing up to sale local produce through Pilot Mountain Pride. As of this week the number of farm families signed up has exceeded 40! These are exciting times as we strive to provide locally grown produce to the region which will in turn assist in sustaining small to medium sized family farms. Buy local everyone!

Agriculture Center Construction Photos, 1/6/10

Website coming soon

The Pilot Mountain Pride website is scheduled for launch shortly after the first of year. The website will feature information about the types of local produce that will be available in 2010 as well as information about our farmers. Be sure to check out the website in early January.

www.pilotmountainpride.com

Renovation has begun!

Work has begun on transforming 6,000 square feet in the former Amos and Smith Hosiery Mill in downtown Pilot Mountain for the Pilot Mountain Pride Agriculture Center. This is were local farmers will bring their fresh, locally grown produce to be aggregated and distributed in the greater Winston-Salem area. Beginning in the Spring of 2010, local restuarants, grocers, and institutions will have the ability to buy truly locally grown produce assisting in efforts to support local farmers and giving consumers in the Winston-Salem area an option when considering the sustainability of our area's food distribution system. Instead of buying produce that has travelled upwards of 1,500 miles to the Winston-Salem area, consumers will have the ability to choose produce that has travelled a maximum of 25 miles from downtown Pilot Mountain. Visit our blog regularly to check in on the progress of Pilot Mountain Pride.