Center for Land-Based Learning Moving to Expanded Headquarters

Listen: Executive Director Mary Kimball

After 25 years, California’s need for trained farmers and natural resources professionals has exceeded our capacity. In 2020, the Center for Land-Based Learning is moving its statewide headquarters and training farm from Winters to a larger site in Woodland that includes:

• A new Farm House building providing classroom, conference and office space
• Two barns for farming operations and training, food packing and storage
• Thirty acres of prime farmland (six times our current acreage)
• Areas of Cache Creek riparian habitat for restoration activity
• A centralized and highly visible location
• The capacity to expand programs and launch new initiatives

Participating Farm Credit associations have pledged to contribute $100,000 – $20,000 a year for the next five years – to help make this new statewide headquarters a reality, which Executive Director Mary Kimball said was invaluable.

The $4 million Growing Our Future Campaign is a partnership with our dedicated volunteers, friends and supporters to raise the funds necessary for construction, renovation and moving costs. It also establishes an Innovation Fund to expand our programs and services so we can take immediate advantage of our new location.

Your contribution to the to the Growing Our Future Campaign gives us the capacity to train, support and inspire future generations of farmers, agricultural leaders and natural resource stewards as we look towards the next 25 years.

We invite you to help us with Growing Our Future. For more information »

Besides CoBank, California Farm Credit System members American AgCredit, Farm Credit West, Fresno-Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit, and Yosemite Farm Credit are contributing to the Systemwide effort.

The Center is still looking for additional support for its Growing Our Future campaign. For more information, contact Christine McMorrow at 530-795-1520.

About Farm Credit:

American AgCredit, CoBank, Farm Credit West, Fresno-Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit and Yosemite Farm Credit are cooperatively owned lending institutions providing agriculture and rural communities with a dependable source of credit. For more than 100 years, the Farm Credit System has specialized in financing farmers, ranchers, farmer-owned cooperatives, rural utilities and agribusinesses. Farm Credit offers a broad range of loan products and financial services, including long-term real estate loans, operating lines of credit, equipment and facility loans, cash management and appraisal and leasing services…everything a “growing” business needs. For more information, visitwww.farmcreditalliance.com

About the Center for Land-Based Learning:

Established in 1993 by walnut farmers Craig and Julie McNamara, the nonprofit Center for Land-Based Learning inspires, educates and cultivates future generations of farmers, agricultural leaders and natural resource stewards. From new farmers and entrepreneurs who need access to land and capital, to high school students just starting to explore career paths, the Center for Land-Based Learning provides the training, direction and resources that lead to success.

The Center for Land-Based Learning is the largest organization of its kind in the state. Our broad spectrum of programs, services and audiences make the Center for Land-Based Learning a unique driver of California’s workforce development, conservation efforts and agricultural economy. For more information visit:www.landbasedlearning.org.