- [David] "A Fork in the Road" is brought to you by: - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yeah to me you are a star oh baby ♪ ♪ 'Cause feels good feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feeling pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ ♪ La la la la la ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

- The fascinating and ever-changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bakers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more, straight ahead at "The Fork in the Road."

(music "Howling at the Moon") ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ - [David] Georgia farmers, artisans, merchants and producers, we depend on these men and women every day of our lives through the choices we make and the food we consume.

Their strategy and approach is always shifting, but the end game remains the same, results.

(bright music) The world of agriculture brings people together in many ways brought together for conversations and in some cases celebration.

There are large gatherings and small and the food we grow brings communities together in more ways than one.

This week we journey through the Peach State to meet a few driven Georgians who better their community with an agricultural approach.

Let's begin this episode in Perry at the Georgia National Fair where we learn all about this amazing event and a few special folks within who make it even better.

Fair rides, funnel cakes, performers, and a special pavilion, you'll find them all here every year at the Georgia National Fair in Perry.

Along with these exciting classic fair attractions, there's a special place within the grounds that showcases all things agriculture and the world of Georgia Grown.

- It's an opportunity to showcase agriculture over 10 different days.

The young men and women from across the state come to Perry to exhibit their livestock.

And livestock competition is an excellent opportunity for those folks to learn responsibility and have friendly competition at the same time.

I competed in those show rings as I was growing up, and it's always fun to watch those contests.

- [David] What's the name?

- [Braeson] Milo.

- [David] Milo, okay, tell me about Milo.

- [Braeson] We feed him a pound a day.

We give him about a bird's nest of alfalfa hay, almost half a cup of oats.

- [David] How long you been working?

- This is actually my first year doing this.

- [David] All right.

And you got Milo looking this good after one year.

- Yep.

- I learned to do this when I was really young.

I came out to the fair and I saw cows here and I knew from the beginning that I wanted to show cows.

Perry FFA has been involved in all sorts of livestock showing and FFA stuff for a really long time.

We're known at the fair 'cause this is our hometown, so this is really big for us to do this.

And we have a bunch of livestock exhibitors that show at the fair.

We started doing this a long time ago and it has just involved so many people, and, like, it changes people's lives.

- [Maci] This is Bailey.

- [David] Bailey's your buddy.

- Yes, I love Bailey.

I spend at least three hours a day working with him on showmanship and just getting exercise.

So he's physical in the ring and he looks really nice.

- [David] Yeah, he's like a giant stuffed animal.

- Yes, he is.

He's sweet like one, too.

- You know, we have the Georgia Grown Building there at the fair this year.

We changed it up adding some new opportunities for people to learn about agriculture, and trying to find a way to tell the story of agriculture in a new way that helps connect it to the consumer so they have a better understanding of what it means to be involved in the ag industry and the role that agriculture plays in their life every single day because agriculture impacts every Georgian every day.

- [David] Here at the Georgia Grown Pavilion, you'll find the baby barn where fairgoers can witness the miracle of birth, but there's also free samples of Georgia Grown goodness, local artisan products, and pretty much everything you can think of here at the store.

- We have built our own grocery store.

It has products from all over the state of Georgia.

These are products that are manufactured, grown, and produced and packaged here in the state and each of them have their own niche they fill.

We've got granola companies here.

We've got peanut brittle companies.

We've got cheese straw companies.

We've got jams and jellies, lollipops, goat soap.

They've invested in Georgia and in their communities and they've built their businesses and that's what we're here to represent.

We're here to represent them, to let the rest of the world see who they are and what they do and what they have, and all the great products that they have to offer.

- Ania Rynarzewska, and I'm an owner and founder of Lux Leonis Skin Care, a company out of Byron in Georgia.

I make everything from soaps and lotions, but I also focus on really upscale skin care and I think this is something that sets me apart.

I also custom design various products for local hotels, or Georgia hotels and luxury hotels, and that is definitely my strength.

And scents are part of it.

We know that the scent really play a big role in consumer's lives.

So this is really why I focus on scent so much.

- Zeke Chapman.

I'm the owner and founder of Magnolia Loom.

I'm a Georgian, born and bred, love my state, and love everything it has to offer.

And a few years ago we set out to create a shirt that was grown and sewn in Georgia.

Georgia produces a lot of great cotton and we have a lot of good industry here and we wanted to tie those two together and bring that supply chain back to our state in the form of producing into a hundred percent Georgia cotton T-shirt.

- [David] What are people gonna see here today?

- We're here in the Seed to Shirt booth that's telling the story of how seeds in the ground can become a shirt on your back.

So it shows you the farm side of everything.

And then we also display the production side and have onsite sewing and onsite printing.

Being able to know every person that touches our garment before it becomes a complete garment is very important to us.

I can take you to shake the hand of every person that helped make the shirt you can buy in this booth today.

And not only that, we know the farmer that grew every shirt, so there's a complete vertical supply chain that we know every piece and that's important to us because not only we're promoting American industry and American agriculture, but we're promoting our state, and being able to tell a story that people can connect with.

- [David] After enjoying the Georgia Grown pavilion, you may wanna venture to the outside garden where our friend, Fredando Jackson, known as Farmer Fredo, and his Flint River Fresh team have been building something very special both on the grounds itself, but also for this community and beyond.

- We are a 501(c)(3) based out of Dougherty County, Albany, Georgia.

Our work is focused on increasing access to fresh food in our communities, and then we also try to work with small farmers, creating new economic opportunities for them as well as developing young people using agriculture as a tool to create leadership, entrepreneurship, conversations around healthy living and wellbeing.

And, lastly, Flint River Fresh, we are the urban agricultural arm for the Flint River Soil Water Conservation District.

We wanna make sure people eat good, support our farmers, and making sure that everybody could just walk out their backyard and take something fresh from Mother Nature.

So today, we are at Georgia National Fair at the Starbuck's Learning Farm.

It is a two acre plot that's located on the south entrance of the fairground.

We run this farm 365 days.

We grow a variety of different fruits and vegetables, but our real focus when we started this project was to show people where their food comes from and also to create a space to show folks how they can replicate it in their own neighborhoods and community.

Whenever we do these sites for Flint River Fresh, we always try to find a hunger relief organization that we could partner with.

And so we went to find somebody that was local that didn't mind getting their hands dirty, and they connected us with a group called HALO.

HALO is all about developing individuals with developmental disabilities and autism, and creating a space for them to learn new job skills.

And so I took that as an opportunity of, well, if they wanna get dirty, I'll look for people to get dirty.

So why not teach them what we do and how to grow food.

(soft music) - The founders of HALO are a group of special education teachers who taught in the public school system and we realized that when the students graduate high school that there are not as many opportunities available for post-secondary education and inclusion in their community.

So we started the HALO Groups to catch them out of high school.

So we wanted to create a program that was not just vocational training, but inclusion, community engagement, volunteerism.

Many of our teammates the goal is to have gainful employment.

We want them to actually be able to be hands on and explore life and explore life together, and become active participants in their community.

- [David] Tell me how things have been going these days here at the Georgia National Fair and what they're doing.

Everybody's getting their hands dirty, aren't they?

- Oh, yes, the natural interest occurred whenever our teammates are out there watching him running water lines and using these fun tools and templates, and we started kinda observing him and then he started engaging us, and it became an opportunity where now over the last two years we have watched our teammates flourish and learning all areas and all components of the garden.

- And it just became a natural progression of building and growing things in a raised garden box to, well, how do you prepare the soil?

How do you lay the irrigation?

How do you keep weeds out?

And they started asking questions, like, on a weekly basis and sometime a daily basis, but it was, like, we wanna grow, we wanna do this, so let's get started.

And so what you see behind me is literally a demonstration of their enthusiasm, their passion, because everything that you see that's planted has a purpose for HALO.

- He's incredible and so patient with us and really understands the mission and vision behind the HALO Group.

That kind of evolved into the opportunity to gain employment with the Rocker's Roost restaurant here at the fairgrounds where our teammates for the first time during this year's fair are hired to work at the restaurant busing tables, making drinks, and just kind of being a support in the restaurant itself, as well as taking the food for the first time that they have grown in the Starbuck garden and watching it be prepared for the people who come and visit the fair.

So this opportunity being provided to us has really opened up a lot of doors for our teammates learning to grow, inspiring other people to grow, feeling the pride from it, and now reaping the benefits of being able to be employed and help be a part of serving it.

- [David] So now that we've met Angela and the great folks here at the HALO Group, let's dive a little deeper into their mission and the hard workers who helped inspire this entire operation.

(cheerful music) - Instead of focusing so much on individual's weaknesses in comparison to the typical individuals, we want to look at their strengths.

We wanna look at their interests and their abilities.

And we wanna empower them and rise them up and elevate them to reach their full potential.

And so a lot of what has evolved through the HALO Group since 2018 has really been teammate-driven and is listening to them.

And it's part of our mission statement is to be engaging in our community, to build partnerships, to build relationships, to show people what this incredible population can and is willing to do.

- And we think outside the box.

That's one of our strengths I believe.

Instead of saying, oh no, you can't do that, let's figure out a way to do it and adapt and do things that if they have a desire to do it, try to make it happen.

- [Angela] Here's an opportunity.

Here's the five things we have.

What do you choose to do?

'Cause we want to empower them with choice.

So we always have an opportunity for them to either go out in the community volunteering, or to go to the gardens and farm, cook, go to the hobby farm, engage with the livestock.

(cheerful music) See, Jacob, it's March 11th, so that means that we've got about two more weeks before it'll become a baby.

So we're gonna take it inside and put it in the incubator.

You wanna hold the baby egg?

Okay, we're gonna take it inside, okay?

Now let me see inside the basket.

- [David] Oh, look at those colors.

- [Angela] Oh, yeah, we have lots.

- [David] Like Easter.

- [Angela] Look how big they are.

Everybody hold your babies together.

We want to inspire the re-imagination of community.

We want people to see that everybody has a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose.

And that if you just give them the opportunity, even as a volunteer opportunity, it often leads to them being empowered, but then also with continued practice it can eventually lead to resume building, experience on a resume and employment.

- [David] Tell me what they're working on here.

- Okay, well our entrepreneurial portion of the program with the HALO Group started actually a couple of years ago.

And it all started with bamboo, harvesting some bamboo and being able to go out and play with it, and kind of design things with it.

And the first product the HALO teammates ever came up with and designed was our bamboo Christmas manger ornaments that you see right here.

And this is the bamboo pieces.

They learned how to drill the holes.

They cut the string.

They cut the hay.

As you see, Stan was here working on cutting the hay.

And then we also have the baby Jesuses that come from our farm.

We actually have a tree here that we collect once a year, the little nuts.

We bake them and dry them and then we assemble them the way you see DeeDee here putting 'em together.

They glue the hat on so it stays on and then they're able to go down the assembly line and put the babies together.

- [David] And you were given a bamboo forest.

- [Angela] Yes.

That just kind of evolved.

We have one of our board of directors members at HALO, he grew up on a farm, bamboo farm, and a koi fish pond.

And so I called him up and I said, "Hey, didn't you say the over in Fort Valley you have some bamboo, or, like, a lot of bamboo?"

He goes, "Oh, I've got acres of bamboo.

Help yourself."

Well, we went over there and cut some and we just started playing with it.

Well, let's learn how to use a table saw and see how easy it is to cut bamboo.

And then it just kind of, like, turned into, well, why don't we make a Christmas ornament?

Okay.

The two Christmas ornaments that we make to this day have been tested tried and true.

So we decided to kind of take that engineering wheel of, like, creativity, like, you create it, you design it, you build a template.

And even though we don't sell our products that the teammates make because it has expanded into making beach bags, tote bags, T-shirts, aprons, pillows.

And all we do is ask for a suggested donation to the program and they get to have the products.

And then what those donations our teammates do get paid their profit sharing for their engagement.

Whether they are only cutting string and that's their ability to cut the string by a measured tool for the Christmas ornaments, or if they're using the drill press and they're learning how to use it and they're punching holes, or they're sanding the bamboo, or they're cutting the bamboo, or if they're out harvesting the bamboo, you're making something people want.

And if they're exchanging money, we wanted to empower them with the same thing so they get, you know, a bonus check for the donations that come in.

- And, also, that takes the idea from it's from an idea then to the fulfillment of that.

And so then if they have an idea of something else that they can do, just gives them that practice.

And, again, it's just training.

- I've got Zachary, I've got DeeDee, and I got David.

So we got some newcomers.

There's some safety hazards that we have.

Now it is the biggest bamboo.

We're looking for a couple of small pieces the size of our thumbs, right?

For our what?

- [Teammate] Bees.

- [Angela] Beehives, right.

Our Christmas ornaments what size about that?

- [Teammate] Yeah.

- Okay.

- [Teammate] This hand fist.

- Would this work for a?

No, right, it would not 'cause it's too small.

- [Teammate] It would work for a beehive.

- It would, it could, absolutely.

- Need a bamboo that's about bigger than my fist.

- Yep, that's right.

It would have to be about our fist size to have the C shape for the Christmas ornament.

(saw whirring) You're trying to drag the tree down, there you go.

Come on, there you go.

- [Teammate] Zachary go.

- Go.

(applauding) There you go, good.

Zach, you wanna come over here and help?

You're gonna hold it right here and just kinda help him lift it down, okay?

- [Zachary] Oh boy.

- Okay, just let it go.

He's gonna do the lifting.

Good, there he goes, it's dropping.

Woo, timber.

- What we're doing now is to this so we can take this back to the office we're just gonna trim the side.

- Okay.

Press down, press down, there you go.

Press down, it's okay, it's okay, you're doing good.

(saw whirring) There you go.

There you did it.

Good job, high five.

It's the first time, right?

You like it?

- I don't know about that shakiness.

(Angela laughing) (soft music) - [David] Tell me what you're making?

- A bee house.

- Yeah, these are beehives.

- [Angela] They cut the bamboo to fit that length so they know it goes right in here 'cause this is what we're making and they get to design wherever they're gonna put something.

- [David] Can I help with yours?

- [Angela] It's like a puzzle.

- [Teammate] Yeah, it is.

- [Angela] It is.

- [David] Now while I'm filming a lot of this footage on the farm, like most folks, I had to take a break from the action, but lucky for me, I had Kyle to help out with some shots on the farm.

- [Kyle] Working the videographer.

- [David] He had been training in this line of work and did a fantastic job help helping me out with this television production.

Thanks Kyle.

After exploring the work of the HALO Group down on the farm, we decided to take some of this fresh squash to the kitchen and reveal another set of skills these folks have acquired along the way.

(all cheering) - There's Aiden.

(Aiden cheering) (all chuckling) (soft music) It started out as just strictly our family, you know?

And now it has grown into our friends, and just people who hear what we're doing and wanna support that endeavor.

Friends and family hear what a good job everybody can do.

They want in on some of the action.

They like for people to come back and get another one, you know, so it's not just here's one time and they say let's try this, but they're doing it, people buy it for some of their elderly parents.

- [David] And this has led to a job for you.

- Yeah.

- Isn't that exciting?

Where are you gonna be working?

- [Teammate] At Sweet Peas.

- [Melanie] Sweet Peas, that's right, an employee.

- I get to finally work there and so it's gonna be great.

- Yes, and you'll be getting a what?

- Paycheck.

- [Melanie] That's right, you'll be getting a paycheck.

- [David] Nice.

- Woo.

(both laughing) We want people to know that our folks with differing abilities, just because their abilities are different doesn't mean they don't have so much to offer.

It's also nice to see how our community is rallying around us.

You know, we've got so many people that have offered and then we all look around, you know, they just sodded this property because they wanted it to look better, you know.

We didn't have to have brand new sod, but they wanted it to look better.

And so there are people all the time that come and offer to do things for us, to do things with us, and just to offer the resources that they have to make it better.

- [Angela] The HALO Group from Middle Georgia, who knows what God has in store for creating a platform in the future, a model to inspire other communities in Georgia and all over to kinda carry the mindset of looking at the resources in their community and seeing what's available, and building relationships and partnerships.

And it just takes a heart and a passion.

And I believe that there is heart and passion like we have in every community because people with differing abilities and with special needs in general live everywhere.

- [David] Bamboo ornaments harvested from the farms and cut with precision, to gathering fresh eggs, and even whipping up a delectable squash casserole, this amazing team at the HALO Group from the workers to the staff are involved in something that is quite special, developing skills for these men and women to use in their life moving forward.

- [Teammate] We cut 'em in half like that.

Then we saw 'em together.

- [David] Becoming helpful and productive members of their surrounding community and beyond.

(soft music) Let's now rejoin Farmer Fredo down in Albany and explore a little more of the mission of Flint River Fresh.

(cheerful music) Tell me what's going on today.

- Flint River Fresh, we have, like, a partnership with Feeding the Valley, the local food bank where we do a couple of community-based giveaways.

And so one of our programs that we do at Feeding the Valley is all at the Fresh Rx.

And so once a week people from Albany Primary Health Care, they get a referral from their community doctors to come pick up a box of fresh produce, non-perishable items, and meat.

And so this is just our, like, little assembly of us making the produce boxes that people receive as part of, like, their prescription program.

And so we have about 22 participants that participate now as a pilot program.

And then we also have community partners that reach out to us that are doing different community events where we preassemble these produce boxes and give it away as part of their event.

And we work with Feeding the Valley because they're different on programs that they participate in to get fresh produce from local farmers that are utilized to provide out into the community.

So this is a way that we support Georgia Grown product, Georgia farmers, but then also making sure that we're supporting the most important part of Georgia, the people that live in our state day in and day out.

- [David] Fredo, how long you been doing this?

- [Fredo] Flint River Fresh, this has kind of been something that started taking shape, like, during the pandemic 'cause what we noticed during the pandemic we had farmers that still had fruits and vegetables in the field, and then Feeding the Valley kinda came in right when the pandemic and stuff started happening.

And so we started reaching out to Feeding the Valley because they had food and produce available, but then we also started reaching out to local farmers.

So about three years now we've been formulating this partnership of fresh produce and pre-made boxes into the community.

- [David] Okay, so we came from Feeding the Valley.

- So right now we're at Malone Towers.

It's part of the Albany Housing.

Like, most of the people that stay here are, like, either seniors or they're people with disabilities.

So they're homebound.

And so we'll just load up the truck with seasonal produce from seasonal farmers, drive through the area to the neighborhoods.

It's just designed a real quick 30 minutes, put as much produce as we can in people's hand in this neighborhood on and so forth.

That's what it's about.

Making food more accessible is one of our pillars at Flint River Fresh, and so that's what we do.

Sweet potatoes, they actually came from a Georgia farmer based out of Vienna.

Part of what we try to do with all of our projects is find as many growers that we can within, like, 150, 200 miles of Albany that we can build a partnership, a collaboration and stuff with.

And actually it was through Common Market.

They have a program that they do with the Georgia Food Bank called LFPA.

They go out, work with, like, local growers, get their product and stuff and then we solicit it and bring it back to, like, the food banks.

And then the collard greens, they're actually out of Moultrie.

So there's a farmer that we work with in Moultrie that has seeds and seeds of, like, collards.

We just go out and reach out to him directly and get what he has out there and bring it to the people.

- [David] It's quite special spending time with people like Farmer Fredo, Angela, and Melanie.

I believe it takes a certain selfless type of person to dedicate their lives for the sake of helping improve the lives of others.

And the more you hang around them, the more you appreciate the work they do, and why it's important to spread the word of what's happening, and maybe inspire a few more to follow their path.

I'm David Zelski.

See you at the next "Fork in the Road."

(gentle music) - [Narrator] "A Ford in the Road" was brought to you by: - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ I see you shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yeah to me you are a star oh baby ♪ ♪ 'Cause feels good feels fine ♪ ♪ Take the feeling pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ ♪ La la la la la la ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia Grown.