When “everyone” is responsible for tasks, often no one ends up doing them. We created these sign-up sheets for farmers to take individual responsibility for doing jobs around the farm and to have public (group) accountability. Farmers sign-up for tasks ahead of time (especially for time sensitive tasks such as watering). Introducing these tasks sheets and teaching farmers to use them will help ensure their use. This structure of using task sheets may have success if introduced at an early stage of the program.

Shell beans are an important crop to farmers, but (and because of how much they are grown) they face significant pest pressure on the farm. We worked with our local extension agent to put together accurate, useful, and accessible organic management options for the two most important pests on our farm: Mexican bean beetle and leaf hopper.

Accurately tracking money between group members who share expenses and/or market together can be cumbersome, even for people who regularly use computers and do calculations. This spreadsheet makes the job more manageable. Staff or farmers only need to enter “raw data” and the spreadsheet will calculate the rest automatically. This may be an especially useful tool for farmers who are going into business together, as in an LLC or cooperative. Two spreadsheets are given, depending on how farmers have agreed to share
expenses.

This guide is an introduction to reporting farm income for taxes. This lesson can be used as part of the larger Financial Literacy curriculum developed by All Farmers, or it can be done independently. While this lesson was designed to be two hours long, it can be done in two one-hour sessions, or activities can be used independently to suit programmatic needs. This teaching resource was developed by All Farmers in CT River Valley, MA in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions). Refugee farmer training programs across the country provided feedback on this lesson, which is now integrated throughout the guide.

This is a one-hour reflection-based, hands-on workshop where most of the farmers’ learning will take place in pairs and in-response to reflection questions. This user’s guide will help trainers to lead this reflection session and how to use the reflection worksheet and PowerPoint. Cash flow is an important but sometimesdifficult concept, and is the primary focus of this lesson. This module is the last core module of the Financial Literacy curriculum, though you may choose to add an optional session on farm financing options. This teaching resource was developed by All Farmers in CT River Valley, MA in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions). Refugee farmer training programs across the country provided feedback on this lesson, which is now integrated throughout the guide.

This user’s guide will prepare trainers to teach farmers new ways of considering financial decisions. This lesson focuses specifically on maximizing profit by changing how farmers think about income and expense decisions. Farmers can also (optionally) learn about enterprise budgets. This lesson should ideally be used as part of the financial literacy curriculum. This teaching resource was developed by All Farmers in CT River Valley, MA in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions). Refugee farmer training programs across the country provided feedback on this lesson, which is now integrated throughout the guide.

This user’s guide will prepare trainers to teach farmers the foundations of budgeting and record-keeping. This is the foundation module to other financial literacy modules. You will start by teaching concepts in a classroom setting, then reinforce concepts and skills throughout the season. The farm records here are set-up to match categories for Federal taxes (taught through the Farm Taxes module). This teaching resource was developed by All Farmers in CT River Valley, MA in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions). Refugee farmer training programs across the country provided feedback on this lesson, which is now integrated throughout the guide.

This is a tangible structure tool to teach farmers in a one-on-one setting to manage established wholesale accounts. You will spend ~30 minutes introducing the farmer to the steps in selling to wholesale accounts, introducing them to the resource, how it is laid out, and how to use it. The rest of your time is supporting the farmer in hands-on practice with the resource until they have reached competency.