Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 7.52, it's FLX Morning, and we're joined on Zoom by Ed Stare and Trisha Kerr, who are with Growing Hope Cayuga. Good morning to you both.
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: And Trisha just was checking in. Are you there yet, Trisha?
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: Hi. Hi. Good morning. How are you?
Paul Szmal: I'm good. How are you?
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: I'm sorry, my computer launched into a Zoom reboot. Oh, no. You were kind of on my talking beforehand, a little bit too close to the meeting, too, so I apologize for being late.
Paul Szmal: The website is growinghopecayuga.org, so just tell us a little bit about the overall mission of the organization.
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: Sure. I guess, Ed, I'll start if you want. It's fine. Our mission, essentially, is to accelerate men to hunger, both locally and globally, through positive youth development and collective action. So we're focused on trying to foster empathy and compassion around these issues of hunger and poverty and food security.
Paul Szmal: One of the projects that you have going on is a youth growing project. You have applications on the website at growinghopecayuga.org. So what type of project might a youth undertake to help attack hunger in and around Cayuga County?
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: Sure. One of the projects that's actually already happening is not affiliated necessarily with growinghope Cayuga, but was an inspiration for us, is down in King Ferry. You have the FFA Southern Cayuga group partnering with the King Ferry Food Pantry. They have greenhouses on site, and they're growing food right there at the school and helping to distribute it to folks in the area. So that's one example.
Go ahead, Ed. I was going to say, we are looking for more projects, and the board will be meeting with school districts that have the Future Farmers of America have a chapter, as well as we're seeking other youth groups, such as Girl Scouts or Booker T. Washington Center 4-H. So there's a wide variety of groups that can apply for this project that gives them some funds, up to $5,000, to initiate a project, develop leadership skills, and develop a greater understanding of hunger in our own community, as well as globally.
Paul Szmal: Another thing that Growing Hope Cayuga does is encourage young people to get involved in agriculture and the food industry. In March, you had a Food Systems Career Day. Tell us about that event. You want to start, Ed?
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: Sure. I'll start. We had an event early in March at the Cayuga Onondaga BOCES, where we attracted 125 participants and had a diversity in the panels of professionals that spoke to the students from technical, professional and business, and environmental aspects. We followed that up with resources for where can the students go from here to pursue an education. We had speakers from SUNY-Cobleskill, Cornell University, and Cayuga Community College. We received excellent feedback on this. It was a packed day for the students to attend.
One of the highlights also was from the BOCES Culinary Program to showcase the abilities of their students, where they prepared an all-locally produced and grown lunch for participants and did it very well. It's impressive, the depth, and as well as the instructor, Mark Fitzgerald, with the culinary program. There's a huge interest among students to go through this program. It gave participants an idea of what some possibilities are, as well as emphasizing agriculture locally, and that Cayuga County has more gross receipts for the sale of agricultural products than any county in New York State.
Paul Szmal: Again, the website is growinghopecayuga.org. You're a relatively new organization, locally founded in 2024. What can the public do to support what you're doing? Trish?
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: I would say, first of all, helping to spread the word right now about our Call for Youth proposals. As Ed said, there's a wide variety of youth groups out there in the community and we would welcome the opportunity to partner with any of them on growing projects this upcoming season. Also, I would say that just take the time to learn about hunger in our own community. We have a lot of different providers here in Cayuga County, from soup kitchens to food pantries, Meals on Wheels, delivering food across the county to homebound individuals. If it's something that there's interest and passion in, think about volunteering for some of these organizations that are working on hunger solutions.
Paul Szmal: Alright, growinghopecayuga.org is the site. Trisha Kerr and Ed Stare have been our guests. Thanks for your time and best of luck spreading the word about this important need.
Ed Staehr, Trisha Kerr: Thank you very much.
