NEW CASTLE, Ky. – David Neville is a man of many talents. He’s an organic farmer, environmentalist, cattleman, U.S. veteran and inventor.

Neville, who owns the 258-acre Capstone Farm in Henry County, says his three real stewardships in life are to the land, to livestock and to the people.

“I want to make a real farming impact here,” Neville said, “show people what a real Kentucky cowboy can do.”

Neville gained notoriety as the first KY EXCEL Farm Program member for his work in 2016 with 52 Kiko/Savannah cross goats in brush control on his farm. KY EXCEL is the Department for Environmental Protection’s environmental excellence program, which recognizes the voluntary environmental improvement projects of both the regulated and non-regulated communities in Kentucky. Last year, the program decided to add a new membership category for farms, and KY EXCEL Farm Program was initiated.

Looking for weed and brush control around his fence rows, Neville decided to put his always-hungry goats to work after weighing the environmental and financial costs of pesticides.

Those in northern Kentucky know that Neville not only looks for ways to better his farm operation, but he is also compassionate about helping others. And recently, Neville has been pushing an initiative to connect schools across the Commonwealth with local farmers. He calls it the Model 12 Grow Fresh Kentucky program, with the goal of getting farm-to-school fresh food into the schools.

“It’s all about helping food service directors in our K-12 schools understand that they can buy local foods and how to pay for it and that sort of thing,” Neville said.

The number 12 comes from the number of school districts Neville wants to have on board to launch the program.

According to Neville, it all revolves around building a network between school leaders, particularly food service directors, and the farmers working in or near their county limit.

“The economic challenges we’ve seen over the last few years are making it more challenging for schools to get ahold of the best food options from larger companies,” Neville said. “Their big vendors are saying we can’t really get you any fresh produce because of supply chain issues, labor issues, shipping, etc., so it will cost you three times as much.

“Schools in the past have held local farmers at arms’ length but now they’re looking around saying ‘where can I get my produce.’”

One of the big advocates for Model 12 is Scott Anderson, who brings in more than 30 years of experience in education to the table. Anderson has served as a food service director for the past seven years in Madison County while spreading farm-to-table ideas.

“I led the state for six years in farm-to-school,” Anderson said. “We were buying whole cows and my students were getting steaks and local vegetables. A lot of things that students wouldn’t normally get. They’re going to see the food and they’re going to know where it’s grown. There’s no reason that we have to go to California and Florida when we can get those here.”

Neville’s Model 12 is still, as its name suggests, a model trying to launch. However, Neville is confident that can happen as soon as communication continues and relationships are made stronger between education and agriculture.

“This is really a win-win if you think about it,” he said. “Community-driven action puts more money into the community and gets healthier foods into the school systems.”

Neville hopes to eventually get all 176 school districts in the state fully integrated in the farm-to-school model.

Innovations come easy to Neville. In 2016 he took on the hot dog industry in Kentucky with an alternative wiener that found purchase in the Commonwealth. Known as Kentucky Dawgs, these wieners remove junk filler and are replaced with hemp extracts. The dogs are now in more than 50 Kroger stores in the state and have made their way into state schools, and across the United States.