Gov. Meyer launches Farm to Processing Program

Georgetown, Del. – At the Sussex Community Corrections Center on Tuesday, Gov. Matt Meyer was joined by representatives of the state’s Department of Corrections, the Farm and Food Council and the Boys & Girls Club of Delaware for the launch of the Farm to Processing Program.

“Every cucumber cut, every vegetable packed represent two investments at once,” Meyer said. “It’s an investment in healthier kids and an investment in real opportunity and real second chances.”

The program is designed to allow inmates at the correctional center help process locally grown produce to get them to children at Boys & Girls clubs and schools throughout Kent and Sussex Counties.

Tony Windsor, the food program development director for Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware, said the program increases access to nutritious foods and bolsters their agricultural education programs by letting the kids help harvest them.

“They’re learning about the product, not just taking an active role in producing it. They’re learning about it,” Windsor said in an interview with WMDT.

For farmers, the program enables them maximize their harvests while providing an outlet for community engagement and job training for inmates.

“From the farm side, we can’t get to where to change the food system without partnerships like this,” Kent County farmer Dave Marvel said. He said, without the partnership, there would be produce unable to reach consumers because there would be no one to package or process it.

Terra Taylor, the Delaware Department of Corrections Commissioner, said the program will help reduce the likelihood of a person’s relapse into criminal behavior.

For the inmates at Sussex Community Corrections Center, they say the program is for a good cause and gives them hope for a better future upon release.

“It’s good to know that the food’s also a good place, you know? Plus, it gives us some time to go ahead and get some, some training for when we go home,” inmate Anthony McGuire said.