Grow Appalachia
Since becoming a Grow Appalachia site in 2012, Cowan has equipped hundreds of Letcher Countians with the skills and resources they need to grow and preserve their own food. Through Grow Appalachia, community members receive extensive home-based gardening education and enter into a peer-learning and support network made up of hundreds of other local and regional gardeners and farmers. From selling their products at our Whitesburg City Farmers Market, improving their value-added products at CANE Kitchen, or hosting Kids on the Creek student visits at their farm or garden, participants in Cowan Grow Appalachia experience first-hand how their home-based gardening can be an essential part of the creation of a stronger and healthier Letcher County.
Project Update
186,000
pounds of produce grown by participants
75
Households served
30,000
Pounds of produce shared with the community
Grow Appalachia participants connected with a large network of resources and support through Cowan’s Regenerative Agriculture and Woodland Growers Coalition, particularly to adapt more sustainable agricultural and stewardship practices that will increase resiliency to future intense weather events.