OFI 1915: A Vision Of Full-Time Farming | FFA SAE Edition | Kendra Downing | Cambridge High School FFA

Kendra Downing is a 2023 National Proficiency Winner in the category of Ag Sales - Entrepreneurship.  Growing up as the 4th generation on her families farm she, her sister and her parents were sitting on the front porch one day contemplating what enterprise the kids could start to generate revenue.  The idea of a pumpkin patch was proposed, and it was decided to purse that endeavor.  That was the beginning of the Downing Daughters Pumpkin Patch.

Over time, Kendra and her sister have grown this enterprise to include a corn maze, which started out under an acre and is now 5 acres, all designed by hand with no technological assistance.  In addition to this, they started purchasing products from other farmers in the area to sell in a farm stand that they operate out of an old barn on their grandmother's property.

This all has evolved into a national proficiency award today, but its beginnings were Kendra's FFA Advisor looking at what she was doing and telling her that she was going enter the competition.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Kendra is now in college, studying everything she can get her hands on in the hopes of one day farming full-time with even more, direct to consumer enterprises to share with her community.