Retired Army Command Sergeant Major Matthew Rutter of South Carolina is the second winner of the AFBF Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence. The award, presented with the support of Farm Credit, goes to Rutter who had an eventful 22 years in the Army.
“I joined the Army in 1998 for college money and to serve my country and see the world, and I went to Germany, initially. Before you know it, 22 years have passed. I started in the infantry. I switched over to military intelligence about five years in. I was in Kosovo, and then I’ve been to Iraq, and I’ve been to Afghanistan a few times.”
Following Rutter’s time in the service, he co-founded the nonprofit Project Victory Gardens to help veterans transition to civilian life with renewed purpose and hands-on agricultural skills.
“Through that, we teach other veterans how to farm. We have a program called Farmer Boot Camp, and we have a Department of Defense skill bridge agricultural internship in the state. And over the last few years, I think we have somewhere close to 300 people that have come through our programming. A lot of them are still farming. My guess would be that around 75 percent are still involved in agriculture in some aspect of it.”
Rutter was nominated for the Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence by his wife and says he had no expectation of winning the award until it was announced.
“I was pretty shocked that I was even in the running. I think my wife might have been doing some award writing behind my back. I don’t know. It’s quite humbling.”