WEST ADDISON — The Vermont AgrAbility Project will host the its second annual Farmers’ Field Day on Thursday, July 30, in West Addison.
The free event will be held at the Kayhart Brothers Dairy (7429 Vermont Route 17W) from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lunch will be available to the first 150 in attendance.
It is open to the public but geared towards farmers and farm workers with any type of disability as well as veterans who are interested in farming or a career in agriculture. Although registration is not required, anyone needing a disability-related accommodation to attend should contact George Cook at (802) 888-4972 by July 15. For more information about the event, call Cook or e-mail [email protected].
The field day celebrates the Vermont AgrAbility Project, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded program administered by University of Vermont Extension and the Vermont Center for Independent Living. The project’s goal is to help farmers and farm workers with disabilities find ways to continue farming and living successfully while maintaining a high quality of life.
The field day will feature presentations by representatives of Vermont’s Farmer Veteran Coalition and staff of the Vermont AgrAbility Project. The latter will address the future direction of the project’s services as pertaining to returning veterans, offer demonstrations of adaptive farming equipment and share stories of current and former clients on how they keep farming with a disability.
Several vendors will be present including Life Essentials, Farm Arm (Northeastern University students who help engineer adaptive farming equipment) and the Amputee Coalition of America, among others. UVM will have informational booths to help current farmers with disabilities and those wishing to get into agriculture find resources to improve their existing operation or begin farming. Representatives from the Vermont Center for Independent Living will be available to talk about AgrAbility services and help those interested initiate services.