0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here and I'm with my dad John at Bountif Blessings Farm. And this morning we wanted to talk about a topic that dad knows a lot about which

0:08is interns and volunteer help on your farm. What are the challenges with that and what are ways you can kind of run a

0:17successful internship program? You guys over the years have had dozens of interns and so let's talk about that a little bit. How can you use interns? How

0:25do how have you used that and leveraged it, I guess, to benefit the farm? Or has it? Well, I I think it's it's important

0:34to ask yourself why you want to have interns or volunteers. And I think

0:40probably the most common answer is cheap labor. And I think that's the wrong

0:48answer. If you're looking for cheap labor, you're better off with a few

0:55well-trained employees. And I I can say that from experience. Um, so you have to go into

1:04it with the right attitude. If the reason you want interns or volunteers is because you have a passion and a heart

1:11to train up the next generation of farmers, I think that's the right reason

1:17for having them. And uh that changes a lot of things. You know, you it's just

1:25not a good business model as far as uh running a profitable market garden. Mhm.

1:34But having said that, I think that um our internship program has benefited us

1:42overall. Yeah. you know, but but you just have to think of the investment you're putting into these interns. You

1:49know, we spend a lot of time in class and we spend a lot of time training and just at the point that

1:59they're well trained, the internship is over. You've had a number of interns that have turned into longer term paid

2:08employees for year, two year, three years sometimes. So, that's probably one of the benefits that has come from it.

2:15Um, but it's a great vetting process for Yeah. for full-time employees. Yeah.

2:21Besides, uh, two spouses for your kids and a third one, uh, in the process

2:28potential. So, that maybe time to shut down the program now. But, uh, no, I mean, there's been a lot of good, but I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of stories.

2:38I mean, I remember interns, you know, flipping the tractor and, you know,

2:42destroying crops. Not nothing intentional, obviously, but you just have unskilled, you know, sometimes

2:49completely green to living in the country or doing anything manual and, you know, it can it can get interesting.

2:58So, I think it's a good thing to to point out. Don't do it just to try to get free labor or cheap labor. you have

3:08to think about it from that missional uh perspective and that's one of the things I appreciate about you guys and how you run the farm is not just about

3:16profit and money. It's about you know inspiring other people. So uh we appreciate that and thanks for taking

3:23time to share with our viewers uh tips and tricks. Anything else? Yeah, just a couple things. Number one, I highly

3:32recommend this book called Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating by Joel Salatin.

3:41I I consider this a must readad if you're thinking about internships. Um, and two big points from

3:50the book are number one, don't house them in your house. They need to have separate housing. Number two, share a

3:59common meal together every day. With those two things, I think are are super important. You're trying to build a community. Yeah, that's awesome. Well,

4:09thanks for sharing. I hope that you found this information, these tips and tricks helpful, and stay tuned to our email newsletter for more videos like this in the future. Until next time,

4:19happy growing.