Workforce development

Master Gardeners Jeff Hatcher and Daniel Collar harvest produce at the Chain O’ Lakes Community Re-Entry Center in Noble County.

Growing communities means growing job needs and opportunities. Across its four program areas, Purdue Extension is helping the Hoosier workforce adapt traditional skills and build new ones.

Health and Human Sciences

Whether it’s gravied Swiss steak and mashed potatoes or berry pies served á la mode, food brings people together. Christ Kurtis, the owner and operator of Christos Family Dining in Plymouth, Indiana, takes this role seriously, pointing out conversation starters in black-and-white photos across themed dining rooms of antiques, stained glass and ceiling murals.

Christ Kurtis maintains an old-fashioned atmosphere in his restaurant, but he depends on Purdue Extension to look forward in food safety.

Despite his restaurant’s deep-rooted history and old-fashioned, homestyle meals, Kurtis has seen great change in the food industry. To keep up, he has relied on ServSafe Manager Certification offered through Purdue Extension to inform him of current best practices for handling food.

“I enjoyed the last training because they concentrated more on allergies and how things have changed over the last five years,” he says.

In 2022 the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) began requiring certification for home-based vendors making and selling jams, jellies and baked goods. “When Indiana implemented the legislation, Purdue Extension was identified as a trusted partner to cover it through ServSafe Food Handler training,” says Karen Richey, a health and human sciences Extension educator who has taught ServSafe courses for over 30 years. ServSafe is an educational program developed by the National Restaurant Association.

Purdue Extension also has received IDOH funding to work with Purdue’s Food Engineering and Manufacturing Institute on food safety for home-based vendors’ products.

A recent graduate from Richey’s food handler training is more often found in a sea of purple flowers than a kitchen. Doreen King and her husband, Mike, cultivate and operate Lakeside Lavender and Herbs in La Porte, Indiana.

“I felt like a baker already,” says Doreen King, who makes bath and body products using raw materials with added lavender essential oil. “I wanted ServSafe for my own comfort level.”

Doreen King says ServSafe training is essential to new opportunities in food for her lavender business.

In a growing business embraced by their community, the Kings saw opportunity to enter the world of food. Lavender-flavored baked goods are rapidly gaining popularity, and two local coffee houses are already buying the Kings’ flowers to make sweet syrups.

With aspirations of lavender cookies and scones, dried teas and charcuterie boards, Doreen King enjoyed
the training’s safety advice and navigation through the new laws. “ServSafe is a tool that will help me right now and in the future,” she says. “If we decide to take that next step, it’ll give me the confidence to do it.”

Agriculture and Natural Resources

Lavender farms are also popular spots for educational tours, especially for the plant-loving Purdue Extension Master Gardeners. Noble County’s chapter visited a local farm this year, and Master Gardener Jeff Hatcher was excited to see how “everybody’s way of growing things is different.”

For Hatcher and Daniel Collar, both residents of the Chain O’Lakes Community Re-Entry Center, their experience going from incarceration to Master Gardener graduates has been characterized by learning from and accepting each other’s differences.

While Noble County Master Gardeners have long been educating residents at the re-entry center and helping them keep a garden there, Hatcher, Collar and four other residents decided they wanted to take the classes last spring to become Master Gardeners themselves.

Ann Kline, agriculture and natural resources Extension educator and director, says the aspiring Master Gardeners from the re-entry center fit right in. “Now that they are actively involved in meetings and volunteer activities, the entire group gets to see that they are just normal guys and dedicated gardeners, and they’ve enjoyed interacting with them.”

Although both have full-time work assignments now, Hatcher and Collar still make time to be in the garden and teach a new cohort of residents. Continuing the work is important, Collar says. “I know the fresh produce we grow is going to a good cause at the food bank. And I enjoy doing it, just for relaxation and peace of mind.”

St. Joseph, Perry, Vigo and other Indiana counties are bolstering their communities by including incarcerated individuals in their local Master Gardener programs.

Hatcher plans to stay in Noble County after he graduates from the center. He’s looking forward to continuing teaching residents “how to grow things properly and reap the benefits of it in their community,” he says. “I’d never be where I’m at today without the Purdue class and Extension educators, so I feel obligated to give back because they reached out to us and gave me a whole different way of life.”

Community Development

Collar, Hatcher and many others have grown into their green thumbs with the Master Gardeners, but Purdue Extension also provides resources for those looking to become more technologically inclined. Daniel Walker, community development regional Extension educator in West Lafayette, Indiana, says that Purdue Extension’s Digital Ready Business introduces people to the tools they need to expand their businesses’ online and social media presence.

The program helped him ready the family commercial and residential roofing company for the next generation, says Beau Curless, a Purdue Agriculture alumnus and owner of R.A. Curless Construction Inc. in Martinsville, Indiana. “I took the course because the business has been word of mouth for the last 40 years, and it’s now my job to bring it online.”

Purdue Extension is helping owner Beau Curless bring his construction company online to boost sales and customer engagement.

Curless, both the man and the company, aren’t alone in seeing the impact of joining the virtual bandwagon. “In past sessions, we’ve seen more than 90% of participants report that the training increased their knowledge and recommended the series to others,” Walker says.

“Applying strategies learned, they reported increased customer engagement, customer base and sales.”

4-H Youth Development

To meet 21st century demands, Purdue Extension efforts open doors for the tech-savvy workforce much earlier. Through the Indiana 4-H Invention Convention program and 4-H Robotics, grade-schoolers test their creative problem-solving skills.

Abby Magner teaches elementary school science in Brown County Schools in Nashville, Indiana. Two years ago she asked her older students to choose a real-world problem and use tools around them to solve it.

Magner was able to connect her students to the Indiana 4-H Invention Convention program, where they presented their projects to judges along with students from across the state. Three of her students advanced to the national convention and are considering pursuing patents for
their work.

“I’m a big advocate for STEM education for any kid, and it was especially great to see two girls from my group picked to go to nationals,” Magner says. “The younger students feel like they can do the same. One of my third-graders has already come to me with ideas for their future project.”

Corey Sharp, 4-H youth development Extension educator, partnered with the Elkhart Area Career Center to run a two-week Invention Convention summer camp in which high school juniors and seniors collaborated on teams to solve real-world, local industrial problems. They worked with NIBCO, whoseGoshen plant is a global plumbing supplier. After learning about the company’s current obstacles, the high school teams used 3D printers and robots in the career center to build prototypes to improve production.

The students not only gain useful skills, Sharp says, but their age makes this program a great gateway to the workplace, as they network and showcase their critical thinking skills to an area employer.

4-H also has a separate robotics competition in which students put technology into action. Rachel Haselby, 4-H youth development science Extension specialist, says robotics are the perfect way to interest kids in coding.

Students compete by building robots of their own with kits or affordable items. The robots are put to the test in an agriculture-themed arena, where they must follow lines, overcome terrain, and grab and move objects.

The students develop computational thinking skills — “helpful for computer programming as well as all of life’s problems,” Haselby says.

STEM programs through Purdue Extension— focusing on science, technology, engineering and math — are giving youth the skills that Indiana employers need in their future workers.