Located in Punta Gorda, Fla., the Charlotte Sr. FFA Chapter is home to the Tarpon Feed & Supply.

How It Began

Carter Keel is a senior at Charlotte High School and founder of Tarpon Feed & Supply. When Keel had the idea for this project, he had one goal: fill a demand that wasn’t offered near him.

Even though his area and Punta Gorda are extremely agriculture-based communities, there weren’t any feed stores. Keel knew with all of the agriculture operations in his county, he’d need to open an easily-accessible feed store for the public. Having worked at a feed store before, knowing how to manage a feed store wasn’t a problem for Keel. However, he still needed funding and a place to run his operation. After talking to his chapter advisor, they decided that this school year would be the start of Tarpon Feed & Supply. 

From Old to New

Using his chapter’s old ag mechanics shop and with some help from his peers, Keel turned the shop into Tarpon Feed & Supply. Open four days a week and run by FFA members, Tarpon Feed & Supply is a functioning feed store that sells orders in bulk as well as individual bags. Upon opening the store, Keel became a registered Graham Feed Company dealer and a registered Sullivan Supply dealer. He also sells Weaver Livestock products, Purina supplements and shavings.

With this being his senior year, Keel wanted to branch out and leave behind something meaningful for his chapter and his community. All of the payments from the feed store are handled through the school and deposited back into the chapter’s account. Over the past month of the Tarpon Feed & Supply being open, it has been a huge success.

“I can’t wait to see it grow even bigger in the future as I pass it down to other chapter members when I graduate,” Keel says.

Leaving a legacy is hard, but leaving a legacy that impacts your chapter and your community is even harder.