I would like to nominate AmeriCorps VISTA Kathleen Powers for a Service Impact Award. Kathleen is serving as a VISTA in Bledsoe, Kentucky at Pine Mountain Settlement School. Kathleen has been working as the agriculture coordinator for the area. She, with the help of former VISTA Maggie Ashmore, wrote and secured a $37,000 grant to continue the Grow Appalachia project in Harlan County. The 2012 growing season will be the third growing season for the Grow Appalachia grant and the program shows improvement each growing season. Not only has she secured renewed funding, she has also been instrumental in helping to expand the program into a new service area, expanded the capacity of the participants, and built a wider resource base for the program and community.

For the 2012 growing season Grow Appalachia has expanded into the town of Cumberland, Kentucky. Cumberland tends to be a more “urban” area with many residents living in housing complexes or in close proximity to their neighbors. Kathleen has worked diligently to accommodate the needs of these non-rural gardeners, such as container gardening and raised beds. All Grow Appalachia participants are required to perform a minimum of five volunteer hours with in their area. These volunteer hours are not only building capacity in the serviced communities, but also building a stronger community as a whole. When a person volunteers to work in another person’s garden, it helps bring those individuals closer and builds a new and lasting friendship that will outlast a program.

In the past eight months Kathleen has been here, she has worked beyond her VAD to ensure the success of the agriculture program in this area. She contacted several seed companies and received donations for good quality, usable seeds. She has worked with the farmer’s market committee to locate possible businesses that would be willing to re-sell local produce. Locating these businesses has provided the gardeners in the program, and the community at large, with an avenue for adding extra income to their family budgets. One assignment Kathleen had to fulfill for her VAD was to create a workshop series for the community. Kathleen in partnership with Maggie Ashmore has identified workshops that are not only beneficial to the Grow Appalachia participants to impart knowledge, but also helping expand the incomes of the participants. One example was the recent chicken tractor workshop. A chicken tractor is a floorless chicken coop. Each family worked to complete a tractor, and at the end of the workshop was able to take their tractor home. Having this piece of equipment will allow the families to have laying hens which can be used for their family egg consumption, to sell at market, or to raise meat chickens for a steady supply of high quality protein for the family table.

In conclusion I feel that Kathleen Powers is the embodiment of what is needed for an effective VISTA. Kathleen has worked beyond her requirements to address the issue area of Healthy Futures in regards to Food Security.