The Georgia Museum of Agriculture (GMA) and the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation are teaming up for a new project that hopes to bring the textile industry back to the U.S. Though many individuals are unaware of it, most of today’s textiles are not made in the United States. This project has a goal to show that bringing the textile industry back to the states can be done.
For those who do not know, the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation is also known as Georgia’s Rural Center. The center exists to build healthy, vibrant rural Georgia communities with managed support and collaborative partnerships. “We work on a variety of projects throughout the state that focus on revitalizing Georgia’s rural communities,” said Loren Lindler, the Communication Specialist at Georgia’s Rural Center. This is exactly what the Field to Closet project does.
The project, known as Field to Closet, is based out of Tennessee. The project will be to create scrubs that will be entirely made in the United States. While millions of people put on scrubs for work every day, so many of them come from places outside of the United States. However, Field to Closet will only be using cotton grown in Georgia to create the scrubs. The cotton will be grown in Bronwood, Donalsonville, and Moultrie. The cotton will then be spun into yarn at Parkdale Mills in Rabun Gap and woven into fabric in North Carolina at Hornwood.
The project has already decided on fifteen hospitals in rural Georgia that will receive scrubs at no cost later this spring. The hospitals which will receive the scrubs are Brooks County Hospital, Burke Medical Center, Crisp Regional Medical Center, Colquitt Regional Medical Center, East Georgia Regional Medical Center, Emanuel Medical Center, Irwin County Hospital, Jeff Davis Hospital, Jenkins County Medical, LifeBrite Community Hospital of Early, Memorial Hospital and Manor, Mitchell County Hospital, SGMC Berrien Campus, Southwell Medical, and Taylor Regional Hospital.
In order to kick off the project, an event was held at the GMA. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, only a certain amount of people were allowed to attend. Among those who were able to was Governor Brian Kemp. He spoke at the event and expressed his excitement for the project and the possibility of it bringing back textile manufacturing to Georgia. “This project shows great innovation from this part of our state,” said Kemp. He also spoke of the impact that the project would have on rural hospitals.
“Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, we could only invite a certain number of people to kick off this exciting project with us.” Governor Kemp spoke about the impact this will have to the rural Georgia hospitals, and he was excited about the possibility of bringing textile manufacturing back to Georgia.
Those that are interested in purchasing the Field to Closet scrubs should visit the website https://www.americaknits.com/media-kit. America Knits is based out of Swainsboro, GA and they will be the final stop for the cotton scrubs.
