1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,640 All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,920 This is Veterans Radio. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:17,840 Welcome to Veterans Radio. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,560 I am Jim Fossone. 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,880 I'm the officer of the deck today. 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:24,760 We've got some great programs for you. 7 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:27,760 I think you'll find very interesting. 8 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:34,640 We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook site 9 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:36,680 or at the web. 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:43,120 VeteransRadio.org is our new URL, VeteransRadio.org. 11 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:48,520 Where we're on the web 24-7, you can find a lot of our podcasts there as well. 12 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:55,080 We post new ones every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, a new interview, 13 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,960 something you didn't know before by going to VeteransRadio.org. 14 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:04,240 And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors. 15 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:13,680 First up, we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org. 16 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:19,360 It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran-owned businesses. 17 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:25,920 You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org. 18 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,360 We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans. 19 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:35,000 Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation. 20 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:47,000 You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at LegalHelpForVeterans.com. 21 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,480 We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today a United States Air Force veteran, Crystal Wiggins. 22 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,680 Crystal, welcome to VeteransRadio. 23 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:58,280 Hello, thank you for having me. 24 00:01:58,280 --> 00:01:59,640 I'm so excited about this. 25 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:06,680 Well, this is going to be a great discussion because we're talking to a girl who grew up 26 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:13,400 in Texas, joined the Air Force for eight years, did some education, and has a really cool job, 27 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:17,560 which is the focus of what we're going to finally get to, which is she's the Veterans 28 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:24,840 Program Manager at the Columbia Center for Urban Agricultural Veterans Urban Farm. 29 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:25,840 That's a mouthful. 30 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:27,240 We'll break it all down. 31 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:33,400 But Crystal, how did a nice girl like you from Texas end up in the Air Force? 32 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:36,000 Oh, gosh. 33 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,520 I just didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up. 34 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:46,240 I had it pretty well as a kid, middle class, had everything I needed. 35 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,400 I had great parents, still have great parents. 36 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:53,080 Yeah, let's get that clear right. 37 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,080 They were in our great parents. 38 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,360 I'm definitely going to listen to this. 39 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,480 But yeah, I just didn't know what I wanted to do. 40 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:08,880 I've always been fairly, I don't know, just wanted to be out on my own. 41 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:09,880 I wanted to travel. 42 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:12,960 I wanted to be able to take care of myself. 43 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,200 And so, it's actually funny. 44 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:18,680 I almost joined the Navy, actually. 45 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:22,840 They're the recruiters that came to our classes first. 46 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,240 And then my dad had been in the Navy, and he was like, no, you don't want to do that. 47 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,440 And then the Air Force guy came by about another month later, and I was like, dad, the Air 48 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,520 Force sounds even cooler. 49 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:42,600 And so I ended up joining at 18, and then right after high school, I joined and went 50 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:43,600 to basic training. 51 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:44,600 Yeah. 52 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:50,440 Well, Texas is a big Air Force area, and so that's probably some pull there as well. 53 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:54,400 But you were pretty typical in that you felt like, hey, I'm in high school. 54 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:56,200 I'm not ready for college when I graduate. 55 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,280 I don't know what I want to do, but I need to get out. 56 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,800 And joining the Air Force allowed that. 57 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,520 But I should point out, because we're not going to focus on this, but I want to mention 58 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:12,960 it, you obtained your bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia. 59 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:20,640 You are just shy of getting your master's in social work from the University of Missouri. 60 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:25,880 But it all kind of started with this kid who wasn't really ready for college by doing 61 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:27,480 some community college work. 62 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,000 Tell us what you did. 63 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:30,000 Yeah. 64 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,240 So I did actually struggle all through school. 65 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:41,480 I actually recently found out while I was in grad school that I had undiagnosed ADHD. 66 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:44,520 So school was really hard for me growing up. 67 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:46,920 I struggled through it, but I did well. 68 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,840 I still got my A's and B's, but I had to try really, really hard. 69 00:04:50,840 --> 00:04:53,160 And I just wasn't excited about college. 70 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:58,840 So the Air Force sounded a whole lot better, more fun, give me some time to grow up and 71 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:01,760 make some money and then have the GI Bill. 72 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:08,440 So I went in thinking I'm going to do four or six years and then get out. 73 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:12,680 And then while I was in, I started changing my mind and I was really loving it. 74 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:20,280 I got my, I started taking classes to get my community college of the Air Force Associates 75 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:25,760 degree in avionics systems technology. 76 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:28,040 And it wasn't that bad. 77 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:36,760 I realized that, yes, it's school to school, but I was taking one or two classes at a time 78 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:43,840 and I ended up knocking it out pretty quickly, the classes that I needed to finish up getting 79 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:46,120 that associate's degree. 80 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:51,320 And then when I cross-trained into meteorology, the schooling was so long and I had all the 81 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:53,280 other prerequisites already done. 82 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:59,720 So boom, a second associate's degree right after I finished all the upgrade training 83 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,880 and everything like that, I had an associate's in meteorology. 84 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:08,600 So that, I think those two things really gave me the confidence that I needed to be able 85 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:17,320 to get out of the Air Force, to pursue my passion for management, for business, for 86 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:22,760 leadership, all of those kind of things were the things that I loved the most about serving. 87 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:27,760 And like most of us, there's always good and bad supervisors and you learn a lot from both 88 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:30,200 if you're smart enough. 89 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:31,760 And I did that. 90 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:39,000 And so when I got out, I had the vision that I wanted to eventually become an entrepreneur 91 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:46,240 and be the leader that not just the people wanted, but that people needed. 92 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:53,120 And so, yeah, I got my business degree, I graduated in May 2020 during COVID. 93 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:57,720 So unfortunately, I didn't get my graduation ceremony, but that didn't stop me because 94 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:03,320 about a year, one year later, almost exactly a one year later, I came back and started 95 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,640 my grad degree. 96 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:12,720 And I'm just a few classes shy of obtaining the master's in social work. 97 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:19,880 Well, I think it's a great story for veterans, as they might tell their kids or grandkids, 98 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:24,400 nieces and nephews that, you know, if you're not ready for college, the military may be 99 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:25,720 the right way to go. 100 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:30,160 And did you even know that they have a community college of the Air Force and all the other 101 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:37,560 services have some something similar to aid in that next step in education as people go 102 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:38,560 along? 103 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:40,240 So I want to highlight the community college of the Air Force. 104 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:41,520 No, I think that that's great. 105 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:48,160 And I love being a part of that story because it really has been transformative for my life, 106 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:54,080 going from a girl that really struggled to, and you know, even thought of myself as not 107 00:07:54,080 --> 00:08:01,040 smart for most of my life up to, you know, within the past few years, I was like, oh, 108 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:03,440 you know what, like, I'm not dumb. 109 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:09,160 I just, you know, I have some challenges, but that doesn't mean that I'm not capable. 110 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:17,360 And through getting into grad school and doing really well in my classes, I really learned 111 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:24,840 to appreciate my own intelligence and what the Air Force set me up for was success for 112 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:25,840 later in life. 113 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:30,400 Well, you can just hear the confidence that Crystal has as a result of that. 114 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:36,440 And I do want to make a poke a little fun maybe at some of your work in the Air Force 115 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,760 because you're a weather forecaster in Tucson, Arizona. 116 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:41,760 Oh, yeah. 117 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:46,440 What do you got to say other than it's another beautiful day in Tucson? 118 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:47,440 Yeah. 119 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:54,160 Um, funny enough, I actually didn't do any forecasting for anywhere in Arizona. 120 00:08:54,160 --> 00:09:03,440 I was assigned to the Pacific Northwest, and I had an 11 state area that I supervised 121 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,640 multiple forecasters below me. 122 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:17,360 And so we, we did basically Washington and Oregon all the way across to the edge of Nebraska, 123 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:21,920 like that whole North, East Northwestern side of the states. 124 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:28,720 And so we did all the military bases and installations and all of that for Army and 125 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:29,720 Air Force. 126 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:30,720 Oh, that's interesting. 127 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:36,000 Yeah, I have a friend who's a professional meteorologist, TV meteorologist here in the 128 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:37,000 Metro Detroit area. 129 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:40,600 It was also with the Air Force stationed at Hawaii. 130 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,480 And I, and I, yeah, I joke with them all the time. 131 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,000 It's going to be the best job in the Air Force. 132 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,480 It's another beautiful day in Hawaii. 133 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:53,080 But as you say, it's much, it's much broader than where you're based and interesting. 134 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:59,520 Well, you've had a, you got out in hand of a number of sort of stops along the way, finding 135 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:00,640 your passion. 136 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:05,920 And one of them, though, with the current stop where the passion is, is this veteran, 137 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,840 veterans program on urban agriculture. 138 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,160 Tell us about, tell us about this. 139 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:13,160 Yeah. 140 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:19,440 So actually when I was in my grad program, I met the previous veterans program manager 141 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:28,800 and we actually, the reason why we met is that I was looking for some food security 142 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:30,880 for student veterans. 143 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:40,000 And I was at the time this Mizzou Student Veterans Association president and was noticing 144 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:45,320 through my work as in the program and the student body program, but then also my work 145 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:53,400 as a work study student within the, you know, veteran's center on campus that a lot of veterans 146 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:55,880 were food insecure. 147 00:10:55,880 --> 00:11:02,280 And they didn't want to go to the resources that were available because, you know, that 148 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:07,160 like, oh, well, somebody else needs it more than I do kind of attitude, which is kind 149 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:08,160 of typical for us. 150 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:11,280 We're kind of stubborn in all of us military folks. 151 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:19,000 So I met with Dustin Cook, who was my predecessor in this position. 152 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:25,040 And we got to make a collaboration where the veterans urban farms started bringing fresh 153 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:34,320 produce to our conference room or our break room area in the veteran center. 154 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:36,800 And that's kind of where it all started. 155 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:43,600 Dustin and I, you know, from there, he kind of kept me informed of opportunities and education 156 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,520 in agriculture. 157 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:53,280 And I kept, you know, trying to collaborate with the student body and community resources 158 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:55,240 in Colombia. 159 00:11:55,240 --> 00:12:03,600 And so once he decided he was moving on to his next career, he hand selected me for this 160 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:10,480 position and I jumped on it because it was, it couldn't have been more perfectly aligned. 161 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:15,480 Like, you know, if you believe in God, that was definitely, you know, there was some kind 162 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:20,360 of magic happening in the world when this came into my lap. 163 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:24,760 And so, yeah, I love working with veterans. 164 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:29,640 I worked with veterans all through my undergrad and graduate degree. 165 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:35,640 I went into social work specifically to focus on veteran issues. 166 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,360 And now here I am living my dream. 167 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:44,560 So yeah, so I'm guessing you're going to want me to talk a little bit about the programs 168 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:48,880 and I'm going to slow you down and you told me I'm a chatter. 169 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:53,640 You're going to really have to put a bridle on me. 170 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:57,680 Because this is where I think this idea is really interesting and I think it can really 171 00:12:57,680 --> 00:12:58,880 expand. 172 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:04,480 So you ran into this as food insecurity for veterans. 173 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:11,880 Many people may not know that most colleges have a student veteran association and that 174 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:19,360 that's a national network really active for transitioning vets who do just what you did, 175 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:24,800 which is, hey, I've now matured enough, I got the GI Bill, I'm going to go to college. 176 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:26,560 But that's a hard transition as well. 177 00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:29,720 So SVA is there to help with that. 178 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:35,320 And it's that sort of where the connection becomes because you've got, you know, this 179 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:42,520 opportunity or this problem that exists for a lot of folks that SVA could maybe assist 180 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:44,800 with on food insecurity. 181 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:50,880 You guys do it by growing fresh produce and making, I think I read 15,000 pounds of fresh 182 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:57,480 produce available each year that gets donated to local veterans and families. 183 00:13:57,480 --> 00:13:58,920 How do you produce that much? 184 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:00,680 Where do you produce it? 185 00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:02,280 What kind of acreage is involved? 186 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:03,840 Tell us about the program. 187 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:13,120 Yeah, so the Veterans Urban Farm started four years ago in Dustin Cook, the guy I mentioned 188 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:18,040 earlier, he's the one that kind of started it and launched it within Columbia Center 189 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,080 for Urban Agriculture. 190 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:30,680 So the location was already in the existing headquarters for CCUA and they transformed 191 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:39,760 it into the Veteran's Urban Farm program four years ago and it's 1.3 acres. 192 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,000 So it's not very big. 193 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:49,800 It's literally just on the northern side of our downtown area. 194 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:59,560 And we only use about, I would say, less than half of that acreage to grow crop. 195 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:01,320 We do everything organically. 196 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:04,760 We don't use any fertilizers or anything like that. 197 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:15,560 We use all natural ingredients for the soil, bone meal and just all of these natural elements 198 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:22,880 to really maintain good soil health because that's where the magic happens. 199 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:32,440 And then we do crop rotations and we just, I have a co-manager, his name's Joe Walls. 200 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:39,480 He is in charge of the crop planning for the entire calendar year and he's actually working 201 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:45,680 on that right now at this time of the year to plan for 2024. 202 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:52,840 So we have a good idea of everything that's going on in production throughout the year 203 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:57,040 and most of the work is done through our volunteers actually. 204 00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:58,040 So we have... 205 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,360 How many volunteers are involved? 206 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:07,280 Yeah, I would say at the Urban Farm we have weekly volunteers. 207 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:10,440 They come once a week at different times of the week. 208 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:16,960 We probably have approximately 20 of those consistent volunteers that come once a week 209 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:19,200 for a three hour shift. 210 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:27,440 And then we also make available group volunteer opportunities to any local organizations or 211 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:34,680 businesses, whoever wants to come out and just give back. 212 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:41,080 We have a volunteer coordinator that leads those initiatives and then they come to the 213 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:42,080 farm. 214 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:47,360 I also sometimes reach out to people and get the word out and then that gets people coming 215 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:48,760 out to the farm. 216 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:55,320 So we'll get groups from anywhere from four to 20 people coming out to the farm and when 217 00:16:55,320 --> 00:17:00,200 you get 20 people coming out you can make some serious change really quickly. 218 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:08,800 And these volunteers aren't all veterans but veteran volunteers working outside in the 219 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:15,440 soil is certainly something that I assume you promote and is therapeutic also I suspect. 220 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:16,440 Yes. 221 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:17,440 Yeah. 222 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:22,840 So currently I just took over the program in May this year. 223 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:28,720 So currently most of our volunteers are civilians. 224 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:35,400 Some of them have relatives that are serving or have served but for the most part a vast 225 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,320 majority of our volunteers, our weekly volunteers are not veterans. 226 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:48,600 However, we are targeting veteran populations and trying to get more veterans to come out 227 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:53,720 and participate as weekly volunteers. 228 00:17:53,720 --> 00:18:00,920 We have a volunteer shift currently that's on Tuesday evenings that I started once I 229 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:04,880 got here at this position and it's going really well. 230 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:15,360 And yes, 100% the environment is very therapeutic not just for the reasons of being outside 231 00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:23,120 on a farm and getting all this delicious food but the people that work there and volunteer 232 00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:32,600 there, everybody has a very open mind, a very like a whole person concept basically. 233 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:39,840 We view every single individual that comes on the farm as a unique person that has the 234 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,040 opportunity to teach us new things. 235 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:45,840 And so that's how we treat everybody. 236 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:50,800 There's a lot of love and support and care for everyone that comes on the farm. 237 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:54,680 Well, I always think it's great when you do something with your hands and you feel like, 238 00:18:54,680 --> 00:19:00,280 okay, I can look back and see what impact I actually had as compared to something that 239 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,960 you don't know if you ever accomplished anything. 240 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:09,920 But let's talk about the, you know, what type of food produce in this 15,000 pounds 241 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:13,440 that are you growing on the annual basis? 242 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:21,280 Yeah, it's pretty cool because we have a lot of autonomy to grow what we want and what 243 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:22,280 works well. 244 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:28,400 So, I mean, the farm's been producing for about four years, like I said. 245 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:36,400 So we kind of have some data on what's working well, what doesn't work well. 246 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:46,520 But a lot of the basics, a lot of the basics, so onion, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, 247 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:59,280 peppers of all kinds, carrots, lettuce, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, sweet potatoes, 248 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:04,520 radishes, turnips, beets, I mean, really just there's a lot. 249 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,400 That really covers the universe there. 250 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,280 Yeah, we regrow a lot. 251 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:15,400 And then we also have a peach tree that we dearly love because it has some fantastic 252 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:17,720 peaches that grow off of it. 253 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,800 And we just started an apple orchard about two years ago. 254 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:27,160 So we're hoping that next year will be the first year that it's really producing a good 255 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:28,640 amount of apples. 256 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:34,080 So part of the program here, and we're talking to Crystal Wiggins, who's a Veterans Program 257 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:39,560 Manager at the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture's Veterans Urban Farm. 258 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:40,760 That's the last time I'm saying it. 259 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:41,760 It's way too long. 260 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,080 Yeah, it's too long for me to. 261 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:52,560 But this all really kind of started in your mind, the connecting some lines and dots was 262 00:20:52,560 --> 00:21:00,320 sort of food insecurity that Veterans were experienced as part of being students. 263 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:07,280 How is the distribution of this food handled and are you able to have an impact on that 264 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,080 original concern? 265 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:18,680 Yeah, so we take the food to currently right now. 266 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,600 What we do is we take it to three locations. 267 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:26,320 We take food to the VA here in town, the Truman VA. 268 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:31,480 We have a weekly on Thursdays from 10 to noon. 269 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:39,200 We have a food market, basically a free donation food market where families, Veterans and families 270 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:46,440 can come and get what they want and leave donations if they can. 271 00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:55,040 And then inside of the VA, we have partnered with the VA here and we have a refrigerator 272 00:21:55,040 --> 00:22:04,200 that we also can go take stuff inside and leave produce at the fridge for people to 273 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:09,120 be able to gather items at their leisure. 274 00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:14,160 And then so that's our first location which is the Truman VA here in Columbia. 275 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:21,960 And then the second location is Welcome Home which is a homeless shelter here in town specifically 276 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:23,720 for Veterans. 277 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:30,040 And we've been doing that with them pretty much since conception of this idea. 278 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:37,800 And then the third and final place that we are currently giving is directly to the Mizzou 279 00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:41,400 Student Veterans Association on campus. 280 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,360 So that's what we're doing right now. 281 00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:49,960 We have a few other locations that we're thinking about branching out to next year which is 282 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:55,480 really exciting but since that's not official yet, I'm not going to say anything yet. 283 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:56,480 Don't jinx it. 284 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:57,480 Don't jinx it. 285 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:00,000 Yeah, I don't think I'm going to jinx it. 286 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,520 I don't imagine many people turning away free produce. 287 00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:06,760 Well, it's a time run short here. 288 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:13,040 I want to challenge our listeners who are maybe affiliated with Veterans Service Organizations 289 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:20,560 or SVA at different college campuses to think about how this concept might spread around 290 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:21,800 the country. 291 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:28,200 We have so many VSO posts with a lot of land that may not be being put to use other than 292 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:30,240 to cut the grass. 293 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:36,080 And this idea of getting Veterans of all ages involved in some farming to make food 294 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:44,920 available to folks at the VA, great idea, great partnership, veteran homeless shelters, 295 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:52,680 fantastic idea, and Student Veterans Associations put it on the table and college kids will 296 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,520 show up and take food. 297 00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:02,440 These are ideas that, you know, this isn't rocket science. 298 00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:07,080 This could really spread quite far and wide, I think. 299 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:08,080 Is there an effort? 300 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:09,120 Maybe I just don't know about it. 301 00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:12,680 Is there an effort out there to do this? 302 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:23,400 Well, myself and Dustin Cook, we've both been very much actively reaching out to other 303 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:32,280 organizations, to other VAs, to other campuses, and are telling them about what we're doing. 304 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:39,160 We've had some people come directly to us and asking for more information on, hey, how 305 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:40,160 do we do this? 306 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:41,920 How do we get started? 307 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:42,920 What did y'all do? 308 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:43,920 How does this work? 309 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:45,160 Yada, yada. 310 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:53,040 And so, certainly there are, I know that before I came into the picture, Dustin already had 311 00:24:53,040 --> 00:25:01,640 about four different locations in the U.S. and other states that are actively looking 312 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:05,680 into doing something similar. 313 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,840 And that is something that I'm carrying the baton with. 314 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:19,960 I want to, I want us at the Veterans Urban Farm here in Columbia to be a point of contact 315 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:26,640 for people that are wanting to get veterans more involved in agriculture. 316 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:35,360 I have contacts with the USDA, with Agribility, with several different organizations that 317 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:43,640 are also looking to teach veterans more about agriculture and farming because we are actually 318 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:50,280 a really good population, people separating from the military. 319 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:59,080 We have a lot of the skills and experience and just like the grittiness, I guess, to 320 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:00,680 do farm work. 321 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:07,360 And so, and it has been shown that it is in fact a therapeutic workplace environment 322 00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:09,280 for a lot of veterans. 323 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:17,200 So, we are actively putting together even more than what we're doing. 324 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:22,960 So like we've just been talking about farming, but part of me getting hired on was the social 325 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:24,600 work aspect. 326 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:34,400 And so, a big part of what I'm doing next year in 2024 is expanding what we do at the 327 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:41,880 farm to be also a lot more veteran outreach in the community. 328 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:52,960 So more events, more classes and training opportunities for anything that you could relate to agriculture. 329 00:26:52,960 --> 00:27:01,480 So canning and preserving, how to use medicinal herbs, how to cook. 330 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:09,440 All of these things are all related to self-sufficiency, to having a sense of purpose and meaning with 331 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,120 like having a community and a support network. 332 00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:21,200 And that's what we really, really are looking forward to is creating a space that is known 333 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:26,720 and loved by the community of veterans here in town and in Missouri in general. 334 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:29,520 Because that's what we all need is community. 335 00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:31,560 This is a great concept. 336 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:42,960 I challenge VFW, VVA, PVA, DVA to DAV to get out and think outside their box of what they're 337 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:47,440 doing currently and think about, these aren't victory gardens if you're old enough, you 338 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:48,440 know what that is. 339 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:49,760 These are veteran gardens. 340 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:57,200 Could you do something in your already existing space that allowed you at the end of the harvest 341 00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:04,480 season to be donating food at the VA to veteran groups, to student veterans. 342 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:05,640 This is a great idea. 343 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,560 We look forward to it expanding crystal. 344 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:12,440 And I think we need to talk to you about a year from now about all the expansions that 345 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:13,520 you have in mind. 346 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:17,160 But thank you for spending time with Veterans Radio today. 347 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:18,320 Oh, yeah. 348 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,960 I really appreciate you having me on. 349 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,760 And if anybody has any questions, please send them my way. 350 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:29,600 Do you want to give an email address out for you or the website? 351 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:39,680 Yeah, my email is crystal, C-R-Y-S-T-A-L at columbiaurbanag.org. 352 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:43,200 Okay. 353 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:45,160 We are glad to have you on. 354 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,040 Thanks again for the time today. 355 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,040 Thank you, Jim. 356 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,000 And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today. 357 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,800 I am Jim Fawcone. 358 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:56,880 It's been a pleasure to be your host. 359 00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,800 I'm a Veterans Disability lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans. 360 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:09,200 And you can reach us at 800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web. 361 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:14,120 You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio 362 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:18,720 shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org. 363 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,440 That's veteransradio.org. 364 00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,720 And until next time, you are dismissed. 365 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:29,080 If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for 366 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,320 Veterans at 1-800-693-4800. 367 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:37,320 They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. 368 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:41,280 Their number again, 1-800-693-4800. 369 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:46,880 We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development 370 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:56,080 Council, NVBDC.org, VA Ann Arbor Health Care System, the Vietnam Veterans of America, Charles 371 00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:04,800 S. Kettles Chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan, VFW Graf O'Hara Post 423 in Ann Arbor, and 372 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:10,760 the American Legion Press Corn Post 46 also in Ann Arbor. 373 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:12,200 We appreciate all your support. 374 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,680 You can go to veteransradio.net. 375 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:22,240 Click on the sponsor level and continue to support keeping veteransradio on the air. 376 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:52,200 And until next time, you are dismissed. 377 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:56,320 Thank you.