Years ago, my family and friends started a nonprofit that focused on family food independence. The program taught our group several valuable lessons about government funded programs. The Jr. Skill Centers nonprofit gravitated around 4H programs in our home county here in Tennessee. The Tennessee 4 H had a 4-H Outdoor Meat Cookery competition that every kid wanted to be in. The local 4-H crowd had the need on the outside, but had no cookers, money, food, all they had was “want to”. I jumped it to action, got us 20 drums, and the kids and their parents got to build an upright drum smoker. It was a really cool project, each student got a 55-gallon drum, with a removeable top. The drums mineral oil, or vinegar drums, they were steam cleaned, to remove all contaminates, sand blasted. A 6”x12” trapdoor 6” from bottom for the firebox was plasma cut then deburred, reinstalled with a piano hinge and latch. 4- 2” hole sawed holes symmetrically 2” from the bottom for air holes with adjustable covers. 8- 6” x 3/8 eyebolts were bolted in at 4” from bottom for the fire ring fire box, and at 12” from top for grill grate. After fabrication each 4-H griller powder coated their cooker the color of choice. We soon found out most of the kids didn’t know how to cook. 7- to 12-year-olds, 2nd to 6th grade so we set up a professional teaching kitchen and with local sponsors, Rob Condor one of the dads a chef, started to facilitate several Saturday programs that cooked everything from breakfast to tacos. As the kids matured in skill, they wanted to have a deal where the kids could cook a meal of their own for their family, they had to make a menu, buy the food, prepare it, and cook their family a meal. No biggie right. Within 10 minutes of Chef Rob’s announcement the 4H chick called and said you can’t do this, these families have no food, they are broke. Well, we will let the local 4 H give each team a set amount to do this, $20 or so for 20 kids $400 total, you would have thought we shot the Pope, 4H and UTK takes donations but will not fund any program like this. Not one cent can go to benefit a group run by non-UT employees. Remember all the kids cooking were all 4H members. Each parent in the program was an official 4-H volunteer. I reached out to a few local business’ they provided money and food to do the event. As strong as the program in the kid’s world, Chef Rob encountered parents that refused to let kids use knives or peelers, cook on open fires, taste foods as they are cooked, touch raw meats and or vegetables. As the day came to cook parents and multiple generations showed up one group of kids refused to cook because they were told by their parents to gather all left-over food to carry home. Around this time 4H pushed us to teach students to grow and or purchase food, only a few students and families were interested in food independence. The community garden concept was red hot from the politician’s side, the “teach a man to fish” crowd all were vested but had no desire to invest, not one dollar, not one minute. One of the lessons Chef Rob had in our makeshift kitchen was making BBQ /grilling, wing sauces and dressings. With no funding available I reached out to an old racing contact who I pitched the idea that we pick 5 sauce/ dressing recipes, label up the 4H Jr Grillers and push the product line as a fundraising product for all Tennessee 4H’ers and FFA groups in TN. We had a bottler in NC that jumped to sponsor the Jr Grillers program with the exclusive bottling rights for the nonprofits fundraising adventure. This gave the Jr Skill Centers nonprofit about $50000 sponsorship for the Jr Grillers KCBS cooking team, and anchor income position on the fundraising program. The concept was simple, similar to selling candy bars/ candles, popcorn to raise money for any student group. Bottler got $1 per bottle, Jr Skill Centers NP got $2, Charity got $2, product was presold for $5 per bottle by any student charity anywhere. 4-H, FFA, ASCE, ASME. We pitched the concept to the local 4H/ UT crowd, based on simple TN regional numbers, if every registered 4H member (150,000 in 2010) sold 1 bottle of each flavor, 5 bottles x 150000 members x $2 income per bottle = $1,500,000.00. Using TN 4H projections the Jr Skill Center nonprofit would raise over $1,500,000.00 dedicated to funding family food independence programs which included utilizing a 10000 sq ft community kitchen, (canning, processing, distillery, markets, and training). Our project received approval up through the ranks, all the way to 4H national until University of Tennessee, Knoxville got involved. As a TN land grant university, most of the USDA ag extension/ rural development is facilitated by UTK. These programs are politically centered programs that are a nightmare of bureaucratic policies. Innovation within the farm community dies within these programs, UTK gets about $30,000,000 per year from Federal USDA to fund extension programs and local 4H chapters. Our group Jr Skill Centers nonprofit met with the UTK in Nov 2009. The meeting was to approve the use of the TN 4H Shamrock on the Jr Grillers fundraising product. 4H National had approved the label and use of the shamrock. The product was ready to bottle. The meeting turned into an exercise that if evil capitalism wants to help rural America it has to do it through a maze of institutionalized bureaucrats. We started the Jr Skill Centers nonprofit to address funding issues with strong programs that fell under control of USDA/ UTK. The local extension crowd endorsed our solution to raise funding outside of UTK, they all agreed that without funding, the programs in writing existed but, could not be facilitated. We soon realized one of the locals wanted to move up the USDA ladder, the proposals we introduced to her was presented to UTK, at the end of the day UTK wanted control (eliminate) any Jr Skill Center facilitated program, all sponsorships/ funding from the nonprofit would go to UTK, then under UTK 4H supervision a funding solution for approved activities would be agree upon. I was asked to transfer the Jr Grillers sponsorship to UTK and that any program that fell under or mirrored a 4H program had to be only approved by UTK and funding had to be submitted to UTK 30 days prior. At that point I asked a simple question “Do you think any actions you described today benefit the 50 4H students that are involved in our programs? The answer was it’s not about the kids, families, or programs, it is about UTK protecting families that benefit from programs that could make other folks RICH! We have a responsibility to control the facilitation of all 4H related funding. I asked the lady in charge; you know we are a nonprofit? Answer: we don’t know that. Me: You have the federal paperwork in your hand. You do know we are a THEC approved training facility? Her: we don’t know that. Me: you have that paperwork also. Her: all that is irrelevant Me: We started the Jr Skill Centers nonprofit to fund programs that you had no funding for. Her: we never said there wasn’t any funding we said we didn’t have the resources to facilitate programs we didn’t feel were applicable Me: I have emails from Tawny and Robbie that includes dates, times, outlines Her: we have no records of any emails to you Me: here are copies for your records Her: There is no need they don’t exist in our database. We have no proof that Jr Skill Centers or Metal Craft Tools even exist. That’s why we must protect our families from any fictious programs and or claims of funding. You refusing to produce funding for UTK to facilitate proves your intentions. Our group was in dismay, looked at the local extension group for support, they all left the room. We told UTK that we would assume the financial responsibilities and fulfill the obligations the Cumberland County 4H made to the families involved in Jr Skill Centers programs. I asked 2 of the local 4H crowd what just happened? She said that it is not about the kids/ families, it is about USDA Rural Extension leadership not getting their accolades, credit for the idea, they are politicians. USDA Rural Extension evaluates the families as too lazy to do what’s best for themselves, that 4H is afterschool care at best, and without the light UTK employment offers at the end of the tunnel (free education, USDA jobs, govt benefits) working at an extension is only a steppingstone. They didn’t like the results for the kids/ families of Cumberland County, but their imaginations were invested in the path UTK guaranteed them for their allegiance.
