Established in 2009 to create opportunities for youth to learn leadership, collaboration, and communication skills, The Youth Farm Project now grows 3-4 acres of crops on a yearly basis. The food is sold at low-cost to community members and used to provide free, fresh snacks to 1,600 Ithaca Elementary School students. In addition to creating about 25 jobs for area youth, the Project also engages youth through cooking classes, school field trips to the farm, and other educational opportunities.
Established in 2009 to create opportunities for youth to learn leadership, collaboration, and communication skills, The Youth Farm Project now grows 3-4 acres of crops on a yearly basis. The food is sold at low-cost to community members and used to provide free, fresh snacks to 1,600 Ithaca Elementary School students. In addition to creating about 25 jobs for area youth, the Project also engages youth through cooking classes, school field trips to the farm, and other educational opportunities.
Founded in 2006, Healthy Food for All helps food-insecure families access affordable, healthy organic produce by subsidizing CSA shares. To encourage and facilitate interest in a variety of fresh produce, the nonprofit also offers its CSA participants weekly free cooking classes and workshops, and hosts events through which members can meet participating farmers. Healthy Food for All supports about 200 families each year.
Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming aims to foster a more sustainable, just food system by supporting new farmers, ensuring affordable access to land, and providing hands-on education in farming, sustainable land-use practices, and food justice. To ensure all community members can participate in its educational programming, Groundswell Center relies on a sliding scale fee structure and offers participants language interpretation and transportation services when needed. As start-up costs often pose a significant obstacle to new farmers, in 2012 the nonprofit launched an Incubator Farm program that provides new growers with affordable land, resources, one-on-one guidance, and training to develop production techniques and business skills for up to four years.
Launched in 2011 with a goal of nurturing a more self-reliant, democratic, and community-focused food system, Crooked Carrot Farm is local food processing business that makes fresh, fermented, and shelf-stable products from fresh ingredients sourced from farms within 50 miles of Ithaca. To support local farms, Crooked Carrot co-packs products for farmers with extra produce and offers consulting and educational services to help grow the local food movement. Through its partnership with Youth Farm Project’s Fresh Snack Program, Crooked Carrot also works with over 20 local farms to coordinate the sourcing and preparation of two fresh produce snacks a week for over 1,200 students—an effort credited with creating a market for 3,000 pounds of new produce sales a year for local farmers. In 2017, Crooked Carrot itself processed over 30,000 pounds of local produce.
Catalyzed by the faith-based nonprofit Urban Ministries, Urbanlife Farms provides jobs and training opportunities to area youth while producing healthy, local food and beautifying neighborhoods. The program operates two farm sites that were cultivated on previously vacant lots. Through its Tables initiative, Urbanlife Ministries also offers paid apprenticeships designed to help youth learn skills needed for careers within the food and hospitality industry. Part of the training is conducted at Urbanlife Café, the Ministries’ social enterprise that is located at a YMCA and serves Urbanlife Farm’s food.
San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project aims to encourage the growth and consumption of regional food. The nonprofit has a 6-acre farm, Wild Willow Farm, where it runs its School for Sustainable Farming and hosts a range of workshops and events focused on training the next generation of sustainable farmers. Through its urban agriculture program, Victory Gardens, it also helps community members grow their own food through collaborative gardens, educational programs, and community outreach. Since Victory Garden’s inception in 2009, the program has helped establish roughly 100 new gardens.
Launched in 2012, the San Diego Food System Alliance is a locally-focused, democratic body working to develop and maintain an equitable, healthy, and sustainable food system for San Diego County residents. To do so, the group advances local and state-level policy initiatives, convenes and supports working groups through which practitioners can collaborate on regional issues, organizes community events, and leads projects and research to bolster access to healthy, local food.
Established in 1994 to foster collaborative community efforts to increase social wellness in Southeastern San Diego, Project New Village now focuses on strengthening Southeastern neighborhoods through the development of beautiful, beneficial, and bountiful local food. Catalyzed in 2008, its People’s Produce Project is a grassroots, community-based initiative that addresses food insecurity, reconnects people to their neighborhoods, and fosters environmental stewardship. The Project includes a Farmers Market that is the only one in the area that accepts food stamps and offers free health screenings, and Mt. Hope Community Garden, which includes a space the nonprofit uses to grow food that it shares or sells and 40 beds on which community members can grow their own food. Project New Village is now engaging residents around plans for Good Food District, which aims to rely on urban agriculture, neighborhood-based agricultural cooperatives, arts and culture, and wealth building to promote community revitalization and place making, and help transform the political and economic environment.
Located within Bartram’s Garden, a 45-acre National Historic Landmark operated by the John Bartram Association and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, Sankofa Community Farm is a 4-acre farm guided by the West African idea of Sankofa—a concept that embraces new learning while remembering the past and one’s roots. Cultivated by 20 paid local high school interns and about 1,500 volunteers, the garden produces over 15,000 pounds of food a year, which it sells affordably at neighborhood farm stands and through partnerships with area groceries, and 80,000 seedlings, which are transplanted to over 130 farms and gardens in the Philadelphia area.
Founded in 2010 by area youth, Philly Urban Creators transforms neglected landscapes in North Philadelphia into dynamic safe spaces that foster connectivity, self-sufficiency, and innovation. To do so, the nonprofit relies on urban agriculture, interest-based learning, artistic expression, restorative justice, and celebration to foster neighborhood stabilization and youth development. The group’s base is Life Do Grow, a two-acre former garbage dump Urban Creators converted into an urban farm, art gallery, and creative hub. The farm grows organic produce, which it provides to local families and sells to the community at its farmers market. The nonprofit also runs a youth leadership program that empowers young people by engaging them in full-time work and training at the farm, and provides workshops and consulting to help others grow healthy food and life styles.
