President, Executive Pastry Chef and Lead Agriculture Instructor,
Fruits of Labor, Inc.
By Maggie Hatfield
Tammy Jordan, the founder, president and executive pastry chef of Fruits of Labor, Inc., was on the road to corporate success. Her vision was to become the Martha Stewart of West Virginia. Her company, Fruits of Labor, Inc., grew most of its own fruits, vegetables and flowers. It had a thriving wedding business that offered catering, floral design, wedding cake and wedding planning services. She created the state’s first wedding magazine, and she produced and hosted one of the largest bridal shows in the state for several years. Then, one day, she went to see a woman she knew who had been sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp. That visit changed the course of her life and her organization.
“While waiting for her to come to the visitation room, I watched as prisoner after prisoner circled past the window,” Jordan recalls. “I noticed the prisoners’ eyes held little hope. For the next couple of months, I kept coming back to a single question: did I want to be known across the state as a wedding corporation or did I want to be known as someone who brought hope in a difficult season of others’ journeys?”
In answering that question, Jordan watched her corporate dream fade, replaced by a far greater mission. She saw an opportunity to offer people—especially women—a chance at industry training through her corporation upon re-entry into society after recovery.
“It has been a journey into places I never thought possible with outcomes greater than expected and challenges of mass proportions,” she says of the endeavor.
Fruits of Labor utilizes its training café, bakery, mass production kitchen, catering and conference center and 218-acre agricultural center to host its two training programs: Seeds of Recovery, which offers culinary training for adults in recovery, and Seeds of Hope, an addiction prevention program that works with at-risk youth, especially those who are aging out of the foster care system. The agricultural center and educational training center offer a farm-to-table-certified American Culinary Federation Quality Program. The programs are free to students, and graduates can earn up to 11 county, state and national certificates.
“Our students arrive in a season of the worst part of their life story, and it is up to us on a daily basis to reflect, teach and encourage so they will reach for the best part of who we already see them becoming,” says Jordan. “Our program is a transformative, integrated impact approach that creates a multi-tier network to support adults in recovery efforts and at-risk youth in prevention efforts. Simply put, if we as a greater community of healing fail to find ways to continue to grow the impact, lives will continue to be lost.”
More than hope, though, students are gaining a sense of community, which was reflected in their actions during the 2016 flood. During the disaster, Fruits of Labor’s training center in Rainelle was completely lost.
“We have journeyed through almost four years of flood recovery in a town already deeply impacted by addiction,” she says. “The journey of flood recovery is far from over, but doors I never dreamed possible have been opened during this season of loss, and coming one by one through those doors were graduates of our program showing up to help Fruits of Labor with its recovery. We are all recovering together from different challenges. This is the beauty of the journey, and this is what drives me every day.”
For her efforts, Jordan has been recognized with multiple awards, including Business Leader of the Year by the Greenbrier County Chamber of Commerce; the Don Myers Humanitarian Award by Appalachian Regional Commission and Development District Association of Appalachia; West Virginia Social Entrepreneur of the Year; the Power of Performance Award for Putting People to Work; and West Virginia’s First Lady’s Rhododendron Award.
Despite the state’s many challenges, Jordan remains optimistic about the future because of the people who live here.
“We did not reach this place of challenges overnight and it will take time to see mass improvement, but it is up to each of us to embrace the opportunity to have an impact on the street where we live, the surrounding community, the county and the entire state,” she says. “Focused efforts today of building a community of healing will create pockets of success that have a ripple effect. We must collectively be that change.”
Words of Encouragement
When she is not teaching culinary and agricultural skills to recovering addicts and at-risk youth or baking treats for the bakery and café, Tammy Jordan writes words of encouragement to share with the masses. As an award-winning author, she has written two inspirational books to help others on their journeys in life, the profits of which support the ministry of Fruits of Labor’s training and retreat center.
Jordan’s first book, “The Door to Fruitfulness,” received the Reader’s Choice Award in 2013 from Readers’ Favorite, the fastest-growing book review site online. “The Door to Fruitfulness” is a devotional that helps individuals embrace their purpose while laying aside unproductive busyness.
Her second book, “The Seed Sower,” received Readers’ Favorite’s national Silver Reader’s Choice Award. This devotional book was written to inspire individuals to go on a 40-day journey of sowing positive seeds in their community.
Jordan is currently working on a third book, which she hopes to complete by the end of 2020 and release in 2021.
