By JAMIE SEARS RAWLINGS

Kentucky Correspondent

OWENSBORO, Ky. — Children will get an opportunity to connect to farming like never before on a farm in Kentucky.

Suzanne Cecil White and her husband Mack are creating the White Chateau at Cecil Farms. The facility will house the Whites’ Academy, an agriculture education initiative created by Suzanne, as well as serve as an events venue and agri-tourism destination. The White Chateau is under construction and expected to be fully-operational next spring.

The Whites’ vision came closer to reality thanks to their inclusion in a slate of projects that received nearly $2 million of investment from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund (KADF) during a May board meeting. The KADF provides tobacco settlement money to growers, producers and innovators across the Commonwealth as a means to assist former tobacco producers and tobacco-reliant communities in agricultural diversification efforts.

In the recent round of funding, White House Lodge, LLC received $98,000 in funds from the state and $25,000 in funds of their county (Daviess).

"White House Lodge offers the unique utility of a farm market with both agri-tourism and public education,” said Warren Beeler, executive director of the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy in Kentucky, the entity that oversees the KADF.

“Suzanne Cecil White’s passion for teaching brings an off-the-chart level of education to this project.”

“In agriculture, we unfortunately have an enormous disconnect between the farm and the public. This project narrows that gap and Kentucky Agricultural Development Board is proud to assist," Beeler said.

For those who know Suzanne and her family, the project is the culmination of years of growing roots in the county’s agriculture industry.

“The Cecils are a farming family who understand how farm and the business community are the same,” said Candance Castlen Brake, president & CEO of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce.

“In Owensboro and Daviess County, we have such a rich agricultural background that you can’t draw a line between business and ag. It’s the same in our economic landscape.”

For former educator Suzanne White, however, the business that’s top in her mind with the White Chateau is the long-term investment she and her family are making into the future of the industry.

“A generation or two ago, everyone was connected to a farm to some degree, but now we are more and more removed,” she said.

“I want the kids in this next generation to have their own farm experience.”

Cecil Farms, of which Suzanne White serves as Director of Operations, produces 200 acres of watermelon annually that are shipped to grocery stores nationwide. The farm also produces  mixed vegetables for use in restaurants and schools and to support the farm’s community supported agriculture and roadside market stand. Overall, Suzanne estimates the farm produces “a few hundred acres” of fruits and vegetables annually.

The Whites have worked with the local chapter of the Boys & Girls Club of America for several years, hosting members on their farm and even donating land, expertise and resources for the group to grow its own garden.

When local Club officials asked the Whites to develop an educational program for members, Suzanne knew that it was time for expansion.

“We’ve watched the kids in the Club just love it and have all these ‘aha’ learning moments, so we decided to create this Academy for any student,” she said.

Set up as a monthly meeting dedicated to a different area of the food supply chain, the Whites’ proposed academy will run for 10 months of the year, or generally the length of the growing season in the region.

“With this program, I am going to get a kid on my farm 10 times, so I feel like it’s really going to create that educational transfer, connecting those neurons in their brain to actually put it into their long-term memory a true farm experience or seeing the production of food and having an authentic understanding of it,” she said.

To give program participants a full view of food production, she has enlisted the help of neighboring growers, producers and agriculturists.

“It might just be the teacher-heart in me, but working together with people and pulling everyone’s best strengths together, I just think that it adds value, it makes things better,” she said.

And nothing I do is just about me or Cecil Farms. My vision is to make our community better in anything that I do.”