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HARRISBURG - In 2022, Pennsylvania's agriculture industry received a new resource to help farmers. The PA Agriculture Mentor Program Pilot included five mentors with extensive agricultural backgrounds to assist beginning farmers,agribusiness entrepreneurs and farmers in troubleshooting new strategies and ideas for their farm businesses.
The program pilot proved to be a valuable asset to PA farmers, resulting in 124 sessions and over 127 hours of service. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, 34 clients received a total of 48.25 hours of free mentoring already. Spearheaded by a group of Pennsylvania agricultural organizations with an interest in the future of agriculture, the program leverages SCORE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and resource partner of the U.S.Small Business Development Center. The mentoring is free and confidential.
Mentor highlight: Winifred McGee, of Elizabethtown, has a passion for helping farmand food businesses get started and works part-time for University of Scranton Small Business Development Center (SBDC). She was formerly with Penn State Extension and spent more than 30 years teaching topics such as business planning, financial analysis and business feasibility.
The PA Ag Mentorship Program focuses on training all farmer types. This includes next generation farmers, farmers entering new specialties, organic farming, vegetable apprenticeships, and more. To request a mentoring session, visit score.org/find-mentor, email atfarmland@pafarmlink.org, or visit pafarmlink.org/mentor/.