Following in the farming footsteps of his grandmother and father, Tracy Galloway founded the Galloway Family Farm and Education Center in Ocean Springs, MS in 2015. While the farm generates income through the sale of produce to the local community, the nonprofit Education Center’s mission is to reconnect the community to the earth and to teach students through hands-on experiences where food comes from. Through arts and crafts, camping, an outdoor movie theater, cooking classes and mentorship programs, students learn that food doesn’t originate in a box, bag, bottle or a can. The Education Center also offers volunteer opportunities for students at historically black colleges and universities, to include Alcorn, Jackson and Mississippi state universities. Since its founding, an estimated 2,000 students have participated in the Education Center’s programs, including a separate program for special-needs students that focuses on teaching about farming as an alternate career choice.
Students from an all-girls school in Jackson, MS (banner photo) and students representing the Gulf Coast Home School Association visit the farm for hands-on learning activities.
After 30 years away, five of them serving in the U.S. Army, Galloway – number 11 of 17 siblings – decided to return to his roots by reconnecting to his family’s farming tradition. Galloway Family Farm operates on one acre of a five-acre estate. The Education Center is operated by a five-member board and a staff that includes Galloway, his Kenyan-born wife, two of his adult children, a sister-in-law and her husband. The organization is a member of the Alliance of Sustainable Farms, a network of Mississippi farmers that works together to build locally owned farming systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable and socially responsible. The farm also participates in the Mississippi Farm to School Network, which works to connect farmers with schools in order to bring Mississippi produce to school cafeterias and a Farm to Table initiative that works to connect local businesses to locally grown foods.