Jorjanne I mentioned in my blog “Faithful in the Little Things” that my father grew up on the Irwinville Farms Project. Since many of you have probably never heard of it, I thought I’d take the time to explain it and the impact it made on a rural community.
| In the early 1930s, when much of the country was in dire straits, families in Georgia were given an opportunity to improve their lives. The government took families who were struggling even with government assistance and settled them on small farms in Irwinville, Georgia. Small homes, animals, feed, seed, and tools were provided to these families. Over time, the families had the opportunity to purchase their homes and land from the government. |  |
The infrastructure that was built to sustain and improve this community helped the families to thrive and accomplish that. Schools, co-operative stores, churches, a gin, warehouses, a doctor’s office, not to mention the homes, barns, smokehouses, and such that were built on the farms provided all that these families needed to do well. The families were encouraged to make farm plans and keep records; the manager of the program educated the men on farming techniques, while the home economist taught the women how to plan meals and put up fruits and vegetables to feed their families throughout the year. Social activities were planned and everyone was encouraged to participate.
Because all these families worked together to lift each other up out of their collective suffering, the Irwinville Farms Project families grew into a tight-knit community. Years after the project ended, Irwinville still celebrates together every summer with a reunion, just like a family would. As a child, I never realized what the reunion was all about. I just thought it was normal for a community to gather together every year for meals, singing, and games!
| I am proud to have grown up in Irwinville, because I know how brave and resilient my grandparents, as well as the other men and women who resettled here were. I can only imagine how scared and nervous they must have been as parents of small children, knowing that they couldn’t provide for them on their own; so, they took a leap of faith and moved to a place they had never seen to work at something they really didn’t know how to do. All because they saw an opportunity for something better. They realized that they couldn’t continue to do things the way they had always done them if they wanted to improve their lives and the lives of their children. The courage to change is much more difficult than the desire to stay the same, but if you keep doing the same thing, you get the same results. Those daring individuals who built the Irwinville community knew this, and so they were willing to put aside their fears and do something different. I think we could all learn a valuable lesson from them. Change can be hard, but I am inspired by a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." |  |
The Irwinville Farms Project was successful in that nearly all the families who participated were able to purchase their farms from the government and continued to do well for their families. It truly was a helping hand, not just a hand-out. If you’d like to read more about it, you can read the report from 1939 in the National Archives by clicking here, or you can purchase the book, Irwinville Farms Project, written by Joy Wilson McDaniel at www.amazon.com. Another fantastic resource, from where most of these pictures came, is Irwinville Farms, A Digital Archive Curated by Brian Brown.
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