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Students work in the new vegetable production class plot at Central Carolina Community College’s West Harnett Center, learning sustainable agriculture methods for growing food without the use of herbicides and pesticides. Setting squash plants in lawn fabric in the former coastal Bermuda hay field, are (from left) Kathy Huggins, Jeanne Beathea, and Brian Rawson, all of Lee County. Tomato plants are growing along the fences. In the background, Cindy Julich (left) is watering tomatoes and peppers while Wesley Strong, of Harnett County, hoes corn. This first sustainable agriculture class at the Center is funded by a $40,000 Tobacco Trust Fund Commission grant through the Project Skill-UP program of the N.C. Community College System’s Continuing Education Division. The grant-funded program provides workforce training or retraining for individuals who have lost tobacco industry-related jobs as well as others interested in organic gardening. 

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Students work in the new vegetable production class plot at Central Carolina Community College’s West Harnett Center, learning sustainable agriculture methods for growing food without the use of herbicides and pesticides. From left, Jeanne Beathea, Mary Daugherty and Brian Rawson, all of Sanford, harvest lettuce planted next to marigolds, which discourage bugs, as Cindy Julich, also of Sanford, stakes tomatoes. This first sustainable agriculture class at the Center is funded by a $40,000 Tobacco Trust Fund Commission grant through the Project Skill-UP program of the N.C. Community College System’s Continuing Education Division. The grant-funded program provides workforce training or retraining for individuals who have lost tobacco industry-related jobs as well as others interested in organic gardening. 

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Jeanne Beathea, of Sanford, a member of the first vegetable production class at Central Carolina Community College’s West Harnett Center, prepares to transplant okra that she grew from seed into the class’s garden plot. This first sustainable agriculture class at the Center is funded by a $40,000 Tobacco Trust Fund Commission grant through the Project Skill-UP program of the N.C. Community College System’s Continuing Education Division. The grant-funded program provides workforce training or retraining for individuals who have lost tobacco industry-related jobs as well as others interested in organic gardening.