History
EDGE (Economic Development Greater East) is a federally recognized nonprofit 501 (c) (3).
EDGE was formed when a group of community members and land-based producers realized the need for coordination of, and support for, regional education and programming in land-based sectors ripe for scale. EDGE focuses on entrepreneurship and agripreneurship. EDGE has since expanded its commitment to local work opportunities to include remote and other trade opportunities.
Evolving out of a volunteer-based agricultural working group in 2016, participants pooled their 20+ years of experience in farming, business, nonprofit, military, and public health to work collectively for full scale regional regenerative land-based production and a healthy, and a vibrant entrepreneurial and work-force.
EDGE's agripreneurship goal is to grow and support land-based producers toward a living wage comparable to that outlined by the agricultural economist David Kohl for Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and our section of the Southeast, which is a farm family gross income of at least $80,000 per year (based on the work of the respected AgBiz Planner program).
EDGE's entrepreneurship and workforce training focuses on stemming community brain drain and talent export, allowing locals to remain local and thrive.
EDGE also coordinates and collaborates on issues of food security and food desert dilemmas, leading with heritage foodways and skills at the core of that joint effort and issues of nutrition and health.
Concrete and specific goals
Goal: Establish a retail store, aggregation, and training center as a flagship bricks and mortar space for economic development of agriculture, entrepreneurship, agripreneurship, tourism and hospitality training, and community renewal.
Mountain Farm Store (MFS) is a three-entity partnership [McDowell County Farms Cooperative, Economic Development Greater East, and Southeast Economic and Education Development Hub, with EDGE management, building ownership by McDowell County Farms Cooperative] currently under renovation through a USDA Rural Business Development grant as a premier site for value-added and fresh food sales and production training, entrepreneurship training, and, consumer and youth and adult food and nutrition education.
Mountain Farm Store focuses first on aggregation and sales of food produced from local and regional producers such as maple products, high tunnel produce and orchard fruit products, bee and honey products, sustainable mountain harvest, and meat and poultry.
Phase Two and Three of the larger Mountain Farm and Friends project includes expansion of aggregation, training, and hospitality.
MFS builds on a two-pronged market model of sales to Hatfield and McCoy Trail tourists, whose yearly income averages over $100k, and, the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid model, of local consumers also deserving access to nutrient dense foods at affordable prices and for purchase also through EBT.
Located in Kimball, WV, Mountain Farm Store is Phase I of a three phase Mountain Farm and Friends campus, researched and established through EDGE, to include build out for greater capacity for additional training, aggregation, hospitality, and community engagement.
Goal: Expand regional agripreneurship, develop local entrepreneurship, coordinate and provide training so locals can THRIVE.
EDGE provides training and partnerships for training in agricultural entrepreneurship and other entrepreneurship and workforce training for the WV and SWVA coalfields and beyond through its THRIVE initiative.
EDGE is partnered with Coalfield Development Corporation to train nine young adults for 35 hours per week for seven months in 2020. In November 2020, EDGE starts its second cohort of 9.
In addition to a foundation in mountain farming and entrepreneurship, EDGE also coordinates training for THRIVE participants in medical coding, IT, and commercial trucking, to allow participants to remain working and thriving in their communities.
EDGE participants who seek to start farm projects receive additional support through EDGE and expand their scale and earning capacity through participation in two cooperatives: McDowell County Farms Agricultural Cooperative and Southeast Education and Economic Development Hub Cooperative Corporation.
Current participants are drawn principally from McDowell County, WV and Tazewell County, VA
EDGE provides training and partnerships for training in agricultural entrepreneurship and other entrepreneurship and workforce training for the WV and SWVA coalfields and beyond through its THRIVE initiative.
EDGE is partnered with Coalfield Development Corporation to train nine young adults for 35 hours per week for seven months in 2020. In November 2020, EDGE starts its second cohort of 9.
In addition to a foundation in mountain farming and entrepreneurship, EDGE also coordinates training for THRIVE participants in medical coding, IT, and commercial trucking, to allow participants to remain working and thriving in their communities.
EDGE participants who seek to start farm projects receive additional support through EDGE and expand their scale and earning capacity through participation in two cooperatives: McDowell County Farms Agricultural Cooperative and Southeast Education and Economic Development Hub Cooperative Corporation.
Current participants are drawn principally from McDowell County, WV and Tazewell County, VA
Goal: Regional coordination across sectors, regional coordination of economic development and workforce training
EDGE is currently building out and empowering a local Prosperity Council.
In 2018, EDGE was visited by the national office of the USDA and it was invited to participate in a private-public-faith based initiative to increase local community grasstops coordination.
The Prosperity Council works together to achieve the goals of locals remaining local and thriving, jumpstarting regional agripreneurship and entrepreneurship, and facilitating remote, flexible, and at large work training and work opportunities.
EDGE is currently building out and empowering a local Prosperity Council.
In 2018, EDGE was visited by the national office of the USDA and it was invited to participate in a private-public-faith based initiative to increase local community grasstops coordination.
The Prosperity Council works together to achieve the goals of locals remaining local and thriving, jumpstarting regional agripreneurship and entrepreneurship, and facilitating remote, flexible, and at large work training and work opportunities.
DESTInations
EDGE seeks to provide comprehensive whole person workforce and entrepreneurship readiness training and regional collaboration and facilitation in:
Multi-species Apprenticeship (currently, meat goats, laying hens, and broilers--in process)
Maple Syrup Producers Training (in process)
Beekeeping (in process)
Mountain Farming in high tunnels and through fruit orchards (in process)
Value-added Meat and Dairy and Product Development (forthcoming)
Value-Added Product Development: Invention and Innovation (forthcoming)
Below are additional programs EDGE would like to grow capacity to provide or to facilitate regional capacity in (programs for which EDGE does not need to the principal provider).
These programmatic areas below incorporate researched needs in our region to increase capacity in the land-based, tourist, creative, and trades sectors.
The Rural Semester: Rural policy, Ag Policy, Rural economic modeling; Sustaining, attracting and keeping talent and leaders
Community Foundation Nonprofit Incubator
Aggregates and provides nonprofit incubation services in
Accounting
Insurance
Tax Compliance
Angel Investors Circle
A means to pool or manage community-oriented investment and donor funds.
Sustainable cosmetics and fashion = R & D and Training
Piloting business research and businesses
Training in sustainable cosmetics and fashion
Feasibility on environmentally non-harmful tanning
Feasibility fur, wool, cotton, leather, and deerskin production
Multi-species Apprenticeship (currently, meat goats, laying hens, and broilers--in process)
Maple Syrup Producers Training (in process)
Beekeeping (in process)
Mountain Farming in high tunnels and through fruit orchards (in process)
Value-added Meat and Dairy and Product Development (forthcoming)
Value-Added Product Development: Invention and Innovation (forthcoming)
Below are additional programs EDGE would like to grow capacity to provide or to facilitate regional capacity in (programs for which EDGE does not need to the principal provider).
These programmatic areas below incorporate researched needs in our region to increase capacity in the land-based, tourist, creative, and trades sectors.
The Rural Semester: Rural policy, Ag Policy, Rural economic modeling; Sustaining, attracting and keeping talent and leaders
Community Foundation Nonprofit Incubator
Aggregates and provides nonprofit incubation services in
Accounting
Insurance
Tax Compliance
Angel Investors Circle
A means to pool or manage community-oriented investment and donor funds.
Sustainable cosmetics and fashion = R & D and Training
Piloting business research and businesses
Training in sustainable cosmetics and fashion
Feasibility on environmentally non-harmful tanning
Feasibility fur, wool, cotton, leather, and deerskin production
EDGE is a federally recognized nonprofit, 501 (c) (3).
Website Content by Economic Development Greater East. All Rights Reserved.
Website Content by Economic Development Greater East. All Rights Reserved.