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Press Release
Golden LEAF News - January 2010
Greetings!
As the state recovers from this recent blast of winter, many are ready for the warmth of spring. Spring not only brings flowers to admire, but more importantly signifies the start of the major growing season for farmers. In line with the anticipation of new opportunities for growth, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded 11 Local Foods Initiative grants, totaling almost $1.8 million at its February 2010 meeting.
The Local Foods projects have promise to provide a boost for North Carolina’s agricultural community and local economies. The goal of Golden LEAF’s Local Foods Initiative is to improve and expand farmers’ access to commercial, institutional, and retail markets that are increasing their use of local foods, especially those markets willing to pay a premium for local products.
The Foundation is continuing to identify projects for its ag-biotech and natural foods initiative.
Best,
Jenny
Jenny Tinklepaugh
Programs/ Communications Officer
jtinklepaugh@goldenleaf.org
www.goldenleaf.org
Feature articles in this edition of "Golden LEAF News":
SCC’s ammonia program overflowing even before doors open to classrooms
The Sampson Independent
Sampson Community College’s Ammonia Refrigeration program has started off by filling its classes to capacity and with hundreds more on a waiting list. Funded in part by a Golden LEAF grant, it will be the only program of its type in the mid-Atlantic area. For larger cold storage facilities, ammonia has become the refrigerant of choice. It is widely used as refrigerant for industrial facilities such as meat, poultry, and fish processing plants.
Laptop initiative kicks off at Early College
The Warren Record
On Tuesday, Warren Early College High School students started picking up laptop computers that they will use for the rest of this school year, thanks to a Golden LEAF grant. Teachers received laptops several months in advance to allow them time to become familiar with the machines. Teachers also completed a series of training sessions for using computer resources.
Edgecombe students 'more engaged,' thanks to laptops
WRAL
Thanks the Golden LEAF Foundation, every Edgecombe County Public Schools student now has access to a laptop. The 1:1 Laptop Program is a pilot program supported by Golden LEAF and other partners to provide laptops for students, training and support for teachers and teacher laptops to help prepare students for a 21st century workplace. Edgecombe County Schools’ officials are already seeing an increase in the level of student engagement.
In tough times, metalworking class has waiting list
The Virginian-Pilot
Interest in a sheet metal class offered by College of the Albemarle is up due to layoffs and underemployment. The program has new equipment for shaping, cutting and drilling sheet metal, thanks to a grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation and federal stimulus funds. Employers in the area such as DRS Technologies, an aviation contractor, hired 100 people last year. Several aerospace companies in the area are expected to hire hundreds of employees over the next four years.
F-35B passes more flight tests
New Bern Sun Journal
Successful tests were performed recently on the F-35B, the Marine version of the Joint Strike Fighter. The new plane could bring as many as 11 new aircraft squadrons to the Cherry Point air station. The F-35B is expected to replace the AV-8B Harrier, EA-6B Prowler and the F/A-18 Hornet at East Coast Marine bases. The Golden LEAF Foundation provided funding to look at the economic impact of F-35B home base options being studied by the Navy. The report is expected to be completed in April 2010.
Stimulus funds help to enhance broadband
Rocky Mount Telegram
Gov. Bev Perdue announced that Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC) — a Research Triangle Park-based nonprofit organization that works on spurring public-private high technology economic development ventures — received $28.2 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to build a 480-mile fiber-optic network for the North Carolina Research and Education Network. The broadband network is proposed to connect 37 counties, including Nash, Wilson and Edgecombe counties. A Golden LEAF Community Assistance Initiative funded study has laid the groundwork for needs for fiber in Edgecombe County. A February 2010 Golden LEAF grant will enable MCNC to assemble a similar proposal for the second round of federal broadband funding.
Bolton's Daniels enjoying busy job
Whiteville News Reporter
Elton Daniels is serving as the town administrator for the towns of Bolton, Navassa and Northwest through a pilot program run by the UNC School of Government and Appalachian State University and funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation. The program is placing four masters of public administration graduates from UNC-Chapel Hill and Appalachian State University in 12 towns to help rebuild formerly tobacco-dependent communities.
Trustees recognize nursing program
Mount Airy News
Surry Community College’s nursing program held an open house in November 2009 to showcase the new lab facility it has created with a Golden LEAF grant. Dan Gerlach and Ted Lord of the Foundation staff attended the open house. The program currently has a 94.4-percent passing rate on the state board examination for nursing students and has recently recruited over a thousand people to become organ donors. The Foundation is also supporting two Centers for Learning, Education and Retraining in Pilot Mountain and Elkin through its Community Assistance Initiative.
Born & Bred in NC
Haywood Beekeeping
Thanks to a Golden LEAF grant, the NC State Apiculture Program has announced a new state-wide training initiative on queen bee rearing and clinics on bee breeding. The initiative is aimed to provide beekeepers with the opportunity to rear their own queens to provide a viable alternative for obtaining queens, eliminating some of the problems associated with beekeeping, such as an unreliable supply of queens, difficulties in obtaining queens when needed, and a lack of local genetic adaptation. For information on the program, visit http://entomology.ncsu.edu/apiculture/BornAndBred.html.
Ceremonial ground broken for New Tech construction
Warren Record
Warren County citizens joined together to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new Warren New Tech High School. The high school is being funded in part by a Golden LEAF Community Assistance Initiative grant. Warren County Schools’ new high school will be one of seven New Tech schools in the state.
ECC offering courses in Historic Preservation
The Daily Southerner
The Historic Preservation Trades program at Edgecombe Community College, supported by the Golden LEAF Foundation, is expanding its range of classes and providing more flexible class times to meet the needs of students. Classes are taught by qualified professionals in the field and the program is the only one like it in the state.
DCCC opens new transportation technology center
The Lexington Dispatch
Thanks in part to a Golden LEAF grant, the new Transportation Technology Center at Davidson County Community College will house the college’s new Heavy Equipment and Transportation Technology program that will begin this semester and their Automotive Technology program. The center will help DCCC students prepare for as many as 600 projected new jobs expected in the logistics and transportation fields in coming years.
Can Durham Outshine Star, NC?
Community Sustainable Energy
After 15 years of hard work, the 6 counties in central NC bordered by Asheboro on the north and Rockingham on the south, Albemarle on the west and Siler City on the east, have created an experiment in rural economic development. With funding assistance from Golden LEAF, Z Smith Reynolds, Rural Economic Development Center and other foundations, have created an incubator for arts and green businesses, attracting five new “green” companies to the area.
Students work on ‘green’ Habitat home
Sanford Herald
As part of a Golden LEAF-funded grant for green construction training, a dozen high schoolers from Lee County High School, Southern Lee High School, Lee Early College and Bragg Street Academy are building a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath Habitat for Humanity home a family in need. Carpentry teachers from the high schools work with the students at the site to provide a hands-on opportunity to develop trade skills for the green construction industry.
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