You can’t argue with the benefits of urban farming. Not only does it provide fresh, local food, but it also helps to unite a community.
While most of these farms focus exclusively on the sprouting fruits and vegetables, a few are looking to grow better lives for a group that is commonly forgotten: former prisoners and at-risk youths.
With 2.2 million people currently in jail, according to the Sentencing Project, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. But even after being released, life for many of these individuals doesn’t get much (if any) better. Many employers don’t want to hire ex-convicts, so the former prisoners fall back into their old life, committing crimes and returning to jail — continuing the cycle.
Which is where these urban farms come in. They employ those that are formerly incarcerated and at-risk youth, offering job-training programs and putting these individuals on a path towards higher education and full-time employment.
Here are three standout urban farms (according to Sustainable Cities Collective) working towards this goal.
1. Recovery Park: Detroit, Michigan
Started in 2010, Recovery Park currently has a fully-operational 30-acre farm on land that used to be an empty parking lot. That isn’t all though, as the group is now working to create a three-tiered business model that will produce fresh food for the neighborhood as well as create jobs for those unable to find employment, such as former inmates and addicts. Eventually, the farm plans to have 2,475 acres of land, plus a food processing facility and an indoor aquaponic farm. Over the next 10 years, the goal is to create 18,000 jobs.
2. Seattle Youth Garden Works: Seattle, Washington
On the west coast, you will find the Seattle Youth Garden Works. Since 1995, this group has been providing employment and education for young adults who are either homeless or involved with the juvenile justice system. Positive reinforcement and an education in agriculture, cooking, nutrition, entrepreneurship and resume building are provided to the group of 16-21 year olds.
3. Windy City Harvest Corps: Chicago, Illinois
From 2009-2013, the Windy City Harvest Corps offered 13-week transitional jobs in the urban farming industry to 60-90 recently-released inmates. During that time, the individuals were taught job skills and given the opportunity to better their lives. After completing the program, many went on to work for Windy City Harvest or to other full-time jobs.
However, with the start of 2014, the group has switched their focus to at-risk youths. Through a partnership with the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, the group will work to create employment and education opportunities to curb the rate of imprisonment among 17-21 year olds.
To check out a few more promising urban farming programs, click here.
Opportunity can arise from anywhere, and as those that participate in these initiatives are experiencing, it can come in the form of farming. Sometimes a little dirt is all it takes to live a clean life.
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Tag: Food & Agriculture
This Community Organization Looks to Economic Development as a Means of Reducing Hunger
Do you give a man a fish or teach him how to fish for himself?
For centuries, we have been pondering this question, but the Food Bank of North Alabama (FBNA) in Huntsville, Alabama, thinks it has found the answer. Instead of just providing food for its patrons, it’s creating a whole network to promote hunger awareness and sustainable, local food.
FBNA started with one volunteer at a desk in the local senior center in 1984, and has since grown into an organization that serves 100,000 people in an 8,000 square mile service area. Their mission: provide food and hunger relief to needy residents but also provide the tools to help the community create a sustainable local food system. (The Food Bank isn’t alone in this fight as it has partnerships with 200 organizations.)
So how does it go about creating a local food system? The food bank offers a wide variety of services that raise awareness and provide solutions. These services include education and presentations on regional hunger issues, backpack programs for school children on the weekends and loan programs for local, small growers and helping to form farming collaborations.
To help with the collaborations, the food bank established the “Farm Food Team,” which connects local farmers with schools, hospitals, grocery stores and restaurants to form partnerships that otherwise might not be possible. As a result, already five new farmer’s markets have sprouted in the area.
It wasn’t enough, though, to work with only people in the food business. The food supply should be the concern of the entire area, so the FBNA started the North Alabama Food Policy Council. Comprised of all volunteers, the Council aims to engage all residents and stakeholders. It has three goals in mind: (1) to educate the residents about the food system, (2) facilitate collaboration and (3) recommend regional policy changes.
The newest addition is the “food dialogues,” which, thanks to the Council, took place in 2012 and 2013. These talks involved residents and experts who came together to discuss how to increase sustainability and the local food supply. From these discussions, the Council will make their policy recommendations.
According to Kathryn Strickland, the Executive Director of the Food Bank of North Alabama, the purpose of the organization is to unite and connect.
“The connection between us and our health, between our food dollars and our local economy; and the connections we have with each other and how our friends and neighbors can grow the food for us,” Strictland told Sustainable Cities. “A local food system is all about connections and it’s so important to strengthen those in our community.”
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Neighborhood Blight Is No Match for These Pop-Up Gardens
Putting it bluntly, there’s nothing good about an abandoned lot. It collects litter and can serve as a congregating place where undesirable activity goes on.
Fortunately, in North Chicago, some vacant spaces are undergoing a makeover and sprouting some new and helpful additions.
Since 2010, resident Lamonda Joy has been transforming these lots into pop-up gardens, providing organic food to the growers.
Interestingly, Joy got her inspiration to create luscious green spaces from a vacant lot that she walked past every single day on her way home from work. After seeing a picture of a World War II victory garden in that same space, she had the idea to return the area to its former glory.
The Peterson Garden Project took root in 2010 and at the time, became the largest organic garden in Chicago and the first in a long line of pop-up gardens.
What separates Joy’s gardens from other community gardening projects? Hers are meant to only last for two to five years. (Hence the term pop-up.) The gardens will appear overnight and a few years later, disappear just as fast.
Their creation is very simple: When Joy spots an empty lot, she contacts the owner and asks to use the space for as long as possible. An agreement is signed with the owner, and the following day, the gardeners arrive with the 4’x8’ raised gardening beds.
The project only uses raised beds because the group is unsure what hazards lay in the city soil, and they do not want to risk infecting the produce. Further, the raised beds make it incredibly efficient to start and take down a garden. When a particular lot is no longer available, the beds are simply picked up and carried to the next spot.
In the four years since its inception, the project has grown extensively. This season alone, the Peterson Garden Project will be coordinating 4,000 gardeners in eight different lots across North Chicago. The gardens are open to everyone, and free classes are offered to beginners, as well monthly classes for experienced gardeners. Weekly, the group holds “in the garden” question-and-answer periods.
The majority of the food is consumed by the gardeners themselves, but five percent is donated to area food banks and nutrition programs through a group known as Grow2Give. The Peterson Garden Project is also working to make organic, sustainable food available for low-income families by providing scholarship donation plots.
Clearly, the Peterson Garden Project is transforming those vacant lots from eye sores into a valuable community asset.
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Why Public Markets Are So Important
Who doesn’t love a public market?
After all, they provide a great opportunity to buy local food, expanding your culinary tastes in the process. But despite our adoration for these markets, we may not realize the full impact they have on the people working the booth. Elijah Anderson, a Yale sociologist, coined Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market a “cosmopolitan canopy” because it is a place of equal opportunity for all genders and ethnicities. Philadelphia is not alone, though, as public markets across the country give everyone the chance to succeed.
Public markets are on the rise again, as noted by Project for Public Spaces (PPS), who found that the number of farmer’s markets increased from 2,863 in 2000 to 7,175 in 2011. The rise can be attributed partly to the help of organizations that assist in linking farmers with land — many of whom are minorities.
FARMroots is one such group. Since its formation in 2000, it has been connecting Latin American immigrants with land in New York State. Recently, they have expanded into the city, supporting urban farms, a growing industry. This is possible through partnerships with Black Urban Group and second-career farms, which are run mainly by women. In addition to minorities, women are also new titans in the sustainable agricultural business. So far this year, FARMroots has helped raise and market 20 new farm businesses.
Further, farmers are also doing business with SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) customers, resulting in increased small business development and food access.
These initiatives aren’t limited to just the Northeast though. PPS has recently been working with a Hmong population in Missouri. Originally from Minnesota, the transition was rough due to a different growing season and less interest in Asian foods. However, with the help of a grant from the Kellogg Foundation through PPS, these Hmong farmers have been given another chance, with a grant that allowed them to participate in training sessions — resulting in sales increases ranging from 200 to 800 percent.
Although these minority and women farmers may experience some discrimination, overall public markets give them the chance to expand their businesses and improve their lives. Therefore, next time you drop by a farmer’s market, realize that not only are you helping yourself, but you are benefiting the lives of those selling to you, too.
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How Do You Increase the Amount of Local Food Sold in Your Community?
With supermarkets offering countless food options, those selling locally-grown food have to be organized and have a good business plan in order to make a go of it.
In Mad River Valley — an area comprised of multiple small farms, small communities, and tourists looking for skiing and summer bliss — is the perfect place to create a facility dedicated to the growth of the local food movement.
And that’s exactly what a 4,000-square foot building in Waitsfield, Vermont provides. The former warehouse is now the Mad River Food Hub, a gathering and storage point for farmers and food processing businesses in Mad River Valley. Founded by British entrepreneur Robin Morris, the Food Hub is now entering its third year with big rewards and high hopes for the future.
So how did a British entrepreneur with a background in finance end up in Vermont? Morris originally worked as the CEO of Systems Union, Inc. (a financial analyst company) in New York, but then switched to work as the CFO of American Flatbread, a wood-fired pizza company. During his time there, Morris discovered a love of food, and, when his company outsourced, the warehouse became available and he pounced on it.
Now, three years later, the food hub has 50 clients, some of whom are nearby, while others drive an hour to take part. The first year the facility housed $800,000 worth of food, but its second year saw a jump to $1 million. It is currently only operating at 60 percent capacity, but Morris hopes to see a boost to 80 percent this year.
The idea and operation of the food hub is simple: The warehouse is divided into different areas with 1,600 square feet dedicated to freezer and cooler space, another 1,600 square feet for processing rooms and 800 square feet of dry storage and loading docks. Local famers and processing companies bring their products to the food hub, and store it all in there. Morris also delivers the produce for customers in the form of his 26-foot-long refrigerated truck.
In addition to storage and delivery, Morris provides mentoring and consulting for clients interested in increasing their knowledge and businesses.
Funding comes from Morris and foundations and government grants, but the hope is to become independent from government money. That isn’t Morris’s only goal for the upcoming years, however, as he plans for the growth of the hub. Not only does he want the hub to provide 10 percent of the food supply in the area, but also expand to more hubs to truly make food local for the communities in the area.
Morris’ food hub is dedicated to the creation of a community food source and environment. With a little storage space, green thumbs, and dedication from residents, it’s clear that other communities across the country could do the same.
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A Garden Grows in Camden
In the midst of abandoned lots in one of America’s most dangerous cities grows a beautiful oasis of fruits and vegetables.
The produce garden represents not only a food source for the residents of Camden, New Jersey (which is known for its high crime rate and drug use), but also a sign of renewal and recovery for the area’s children and families.
The year 2012 saw Camden named the most dangerous city in America, and times only got worse in 2012 when Camden lost its last central supermarket. Now, all that is left for food shopping is a grocery store that’s too far away for the city’s poor, car-less population and packaged food that can be purchased at the city’s bodegas. With access to fresh, healthy food so limited or nonexistent, it is no surprise that obesity is common.
However, not all is lost thanks to the introduction of community gardens. Across the city, they’re sprouting up in the abandoned lots sponsored by churches, neighborhood organizations, and private growers. The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Public Health Initiatives reported in 2010 that Camden’s gardens were the fastest growing in the country. The 130 gardens in the city produced $2.3 million worth of food and fed 15 percent of the population.
Who is responsible for this change? The answer can be traced back to one man: Mike Devlin. Devlin came to Camden in the late 1970s and has since been trying to develop agriculture in the area. Under his guidance, the Camden City Garden Club was created in 1985. The organization provides support for the area by offering educational classes, materials, structural help, and food distribution. Under the club are a number of other organizations such as the Camden Children’s Garden, Camden Grows, the Food Security Council, and the Fresh Mobile Market.
Camden has been wrestling with violence and economic troubles since the late 1970s. Although those issues are still prevalent in the area, the community gardens provide an alternative life. Many students who work at the Camden Children’s Garden go on to attend college. While the gardens may not solve all of Camden’s problems, it provides a stepping stone for residents and a hope that change is possible.
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Ohio Takes Their Agriculture Industry to Auction
Haggling and bartering are hardly a pastime, and the familiar auction noises of the bang of the gavel and “sold” are the sounds of hope for economic revitalization. At least that is the intention of Ohio Appalachian famers who replaced the traditional farmer’s market with a good old-fashioned produce auction.
While many famer’s markets are located near major cities, making them too far for many farmers to travel — especially when there’s no guarantee that the produce will sell. In contrast, produce auctions are more accessible to farmers.
The way a produce auction works is simple: On the day of the auction, farmers roll up with cars full of their produce, the auctioneer begins the auction, potential buyers bid on the goods, and famers return home with empty cars. Although the process is long, both growers and buyers leave satisfied.
The first produce auction sprouted in Ohio in 1992 with the help of the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation and founders Jean and Marvin Konkle. Today, though, the government barely plays any role in it. The auctions are community funded, as the people sell shares locally to generate the money to start a new auction. Originally operating with a net loss, the past five years have seen an increase in profits for famers. Chesterhill, one of the poorest parts of the Ohio – Appalachian region had a profit of $223,000 for 130 farmers in 2013, while the largest and most cosmopolitan Mount Hope Produce Auction grossed a whopping $10 million in 2011.
Economics isn’t the only benefit, though, as educational classes for the farmers are also part of the deal. Rural Auction, who owns and operates the Chesterhill Auction, offers classes, which train and instruct farmers on how to clean their produce for direct sell as well as to how to improve agricultural processes, which, in turn, has boosted sales and the economy.
The quality and freshness of the food has attracted the attention of the community at large. In addition to the 1,300 registered buyers at the Chesterhill Produce Auction, are 35-40 commercial buyers — including Ohio University. Making the auction more appealing and easier for buyers is the ability to order produce remotely.
Bottom line, both commercial buyers and the community are eager to participate. But why? “At the very basic, basic level, it’s because the food’s better,” said Chef Matt Rapposelli of Ohio University told Dowser. “If you have an opportunity to support a neighbor rather than a corporate entity, you should support the neighbor.”
That support is being felt in a region facing high unemployment, particularly in agriculture. Produce auctions are continuing to pop up across the country, with the number currently at 50. In time, however, these fun community gatherings could be the needed impetus to rejuvenate the agricultural industry nationwide.
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Read About the Nonprofit That Grows Not Just Food, But a Community, Too
What activity can decrease a low-income family’s dependence on food assistance, promote health, reduce crime, and bring people of different income and education levels together? Gardening can accomplish all this and more.
Since botanist and garden enthusiast Larry Stebbins responded to the lack of community gardens in Colorado Springs, Colorado by starting the nonprofit Pikes Peak Urban Gardens (PPUG) in 2007, hundreds of volunteers have become involved in creating plots in low-income neighborhoods and educating their new owners on how to tend them. “By teaching others how to [garden], you empower them to be more in control of their food supply,” Stebbins told J. Adrian Stanley of the Colorado Springs Independent.
Case in point: Stebbins said that one low-income family participating in the PPUG expanded the garden volunteers had helped them plant and were able to reduce using food stamps by 70 percent during the summer months when tomatoes, zucchinis, and other produce was abundant.
Another benefit to gardening? The nonprofit has learned over the years that when the plots are physically close together in proximity, not only is a feeling of community created, but also an atmosphere in which gardeners learn from and share with each other. Now it plants “pods” of gardens, such as the nine clustered gardens they established in a low-income neighborhood this year with the help of a $3,000 grant from the Colorado Home and Garden Show.
In addition to helping people plant their own gardens, Pikes Peak Urban Gardens has established two urban farms that grow produce for charities; some of the homeless people that benefit from the produce pitch in to tend those crops, alongside volunteers from all walks of life. Stebbins told Stanley that one year, a doctor and a man who lived in subsidized housing struck up a garden-based friendship. “People come in their dungarees,” he said. “You don’t know if they’re rich, poor or whatever. And it’s a great equalizer, and it’s a great way for people to come together.” After all, we’re all united in our quest for that perfect tomato.
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Brewers Fight Proposed Regulation That Would End Grain Recycling Initiatives
If you’re a lover of the brewsky, then Denver is the city for you.
The Mile High city brews more beer than any other American city, and the state of Colorado boasts over 140 microbreweries. So it probably won’t surprise beer lovers here in the “Napa of beer” that many brewers are using their drinks as forces for environmental and economic good, donating their spent grains — barley, hops, wheat and other grains that have been soaked in water during the beer-brewing process — to farmers who can use them to feed their livestock, instead of throwing them away.
Oskar Blues, a Longmont-based brewery, runs the Hops and Heifers program. In a process it calls “Farm to Cup,” the brewery grows hops on its own farm, uses the hops for brewing, feeds its cattle with the spent grains, and then uses the meat from these cows in burgers sold at its restaurant.
But newly proposed FDA rules threaten to disrupt innovative recycling programs such as this, forcing microbreweries to send the spent grains to landfills or else engage in a costly process of drying out the grains and packaging them to prevent anyone from touching them before they reach the farmers. For many small brewers, the cost of this would be too great and they’d be forced to choose the landfill option.
According to John Fryar of the Longmont Times-Call, Paul Gatza, who directs the Boulder-based 20,000-member strong Brewers Association, spoke with FDA officials who say they’ll change the rule before issuing new draft of the regulations this summer. “The wording in the original proposed rules was pretty bad,” Gatza said. He estimates that the new rule would cost breweries $5 more per barrel to process the grains before donating or selling them to farmers, potentially putting many small brewers out of the recycling business. That would have been a shame, as a recent Brewers Association survey found that members reuse 90 percent of their spent grains.
FDA spokeswoman Juli Putnam told Fryar that they’ve gone back to the drawing board, rewriting some of the language in the regulation in a way that will hopefully allow this beer positivity cycle to continue. Now that’s good news worth lifting a beer over.
MORE: His Family Lost its Farm. Now He’s Making Sure No One Else in His Community Suffers the Same Fate.
How One Man Is Reducing Food Waste and Cutting Grocery Bills at the Same Time
Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe’s, is at work on a new venture that hopes to extract value from the food that grocery stores throw out.
In June, Rauch opened a new venture in Dorchester, Mass. called The Daily Table, a store that sells discounted food that’s slightly past its sell-by date.
According to Lindsay Abrams of Salon, 40 percent of the food produced each year in America is wasted, in part because supermarkets must throw it out if its sell-by date — a number that a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School found is nearly arbitrary — has passed.
Rauch and others argue that there’s nothing wrong with this food and that it could be used to solve the problems of hunger and food insecurity that many Americans face. Rauch further believes this unnecessary food waste can be turned into a profitable business venture.
Offering affordable, healthy food to the working poor — it’s a crazy enough idea that’s likely to work.
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