Durham County just locked in a $475,000 grant to kick off Phase 1 of its long-planned Farm Campus, shifting the project from years of talk to on-the-ground training and infrastructure. The campus is set for a county-owned, 129-acre site on Orange Factory Road and is designed to give new and existing farmers access to land, equipment and business support.
The Golden LEAF Foundation awarded the $475,000 to Durham County Cooperative Extension to cover initial staffing, construction, equipment and supplies, plus training that the foundation says could reach about 425 participants a year. The grant, part of a broader February funding round, is tagged to launch programming and build core infrastructure for the campus.
County Moves From Plan To Ground
Durham County commissioners voted to formally accept the Golden LEAF award and to create a full-time Farm Manager position to steer early site work and programming, according to Durham County records. The county’s Farm Campus page lists the parcel as 308 Orange Factory Rd and describes large farm fields, four ponds and forest on the 129-acre property, which the county purchased in 2024. County documents state that Golden LEAF funding will support a three-year Phase 1, from Feb. 5, 2026 to Feb. 4, 2029, focused on getting the site ready, launching initial programming and building essential infrastructure.
What Officials Say
Raina Goldstein Bunnag, Durham County Cooperative Extension’s food security coordinator, underscored the stakes, saying, “Durham is No. 2 in the country for loss of farmland, behind Texas.” Horticulture extension agent Ashley Troth said the campus will “help people without land or farming backgrounds get access to what they need to start and grow farming businesses,” as reported by CBS17.
How This Fits The Bigger Picture
The Farm Campus stems from a USDA-funded planning grant and a feasibility process that wrapped with a 2025 report, which recommended a phased, 10-year roadmap and helped shape the 2024 land purchase. That feasibility work and local reporting raised questions about long-term governance and funding, issues the Golden LEAF award begins to address. Consultants and community partners have already shown interest in early programming, as reported by IndyWeek…