Posted by:
Steve Dubb
Website highlights movement growth
As a new section of the website of the National Community Land Trust Network demonstrates, an increasing number of community land trusts, best known for their support of permanently affordable home ownership using a model of shared equity housing, are also supporting the development of urban agriculture, as well as the stewardship of green space in urban areas.
One of the most advanced of these efforts is the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Growing Power, which describes itself as a “national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities.” Its founder, Will Allen, was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2008. A profile in the New York Times published shortly after that award noted that prior to the award, Growing Power had been built up into an organization with “three dozen full-time workers and 2,000 residents pitching in as volunteers, his operation raises about $500,000 worth of affordable produce in both Chicago and Milwaukee.
A few other efforts highlighted on the Community Land Trust Network’s site are:
Lake Claire Community Land Trust: Based in Atlanta, this land trust’s mission is to “maintain a local green space in the Lake Claire community of Atlanta where neighbors and the larger community can gather to cultivate and celebrate nature, the arts, and each other.” The group, located in the heart of Atlanta, sponsors outdoor activities, meetings, classes, camps and fund-raisers and furthers the Land Trust’s educational, recreational, and charitable goals.
Neighbor Space: This Chicago land trust holds land for community gardens all across the city, and then leases them to community-based urban agriculture groups.
Troy Gardens: This project, based in Madison, Wisconsin and developed by the Madison Area Community Land Trust combines affordable housing, green space, and urban farms. The urban farms and 26 acres of green space are maintained by a separate nonprofit organization called Community GroundWorks.
A new urban agriculture project, also in Madison, is Badger School for Urban Agriculture and Community, a combined effort of Growing Power, Madison Area Community Land Trust, and the Center for Resilient Cities.The project in its design combines a number of elements, including a focus on using renewable energy and urban agriculture, as well as serving as an incubator for green collar jobs.