NORTH CAROLINA -- The North Carolina SweetPotato Commission works with hundreds of family operated farms across the state.

Many operations have been around for generations and work hard to keep their businesses going.

Kendall Hill runs Tull Hill Farms in Kinston. He's 80 years old and has been working on the farm since he was 10. His father started the farm in 1938.

What You Need To Know

  • The commission hopes to increase sweet potato consumption through education, promotional activities, research and honorable horticultural practices among its producers.

  • The commission started in 1961 and is celebrating 60 years this year.

  • North Carolina is the No. 1 producer of sweet potatoes in the United States.

"You get involved in it, you get entrenched in it, and here there is so much to do. You can work every day,” Hill says.

He still does certain tasks on the farm and his son, Rob is there to help.

Tull Hill Farms is just one of hundreds of family owned operations across North Carolina.

Vick Family Farms in Wilson is run by Jerome Vick. He acquired the land through his family after his grandparents bought the farm in 1915.

He has six generations involved in the farm and just welcomed his first great grandchild.

“The more I see, the more I read and the more I learn, the bigger I see this playing field is," Vick says. 

Vick was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome in 2002. It is a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves. Vick now uses a wheelchair, but says his ambition has not wavered.

"I didn't lose my appetite, didn't lose my thinking ability so we have managed to keep on," Vick says.

Both Vick and Hill have been involved in the SweetPotato Commission since in started in 1961. And ten years later, North Carolina became the No. 1 sweet potato producing state in the United States. It's kept that honor ever since.

Vick and Hill thank North Carolina's climate and rich fertile soil for the success of cultivating sweet potatoes over decades.

The North Carolina SweetPotato commission is actively working to change sweet potato from two words into one.

Multiple groups like, the International Potato Center, National Sweetpotato Collaborators Group and National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) in Japan already refer to a sweet potato as "sweetpotato".

And the commission worked with the North Carolina General Assembly to enact the North Carolina SweetPotato Act for promotion of the vegetable across North Carolina.