Urban Agriculture in Our Community: Meeting TOMORROW

[kcmill...@gmail.com]

Reminder: Community meeting, Wednesday, August 4th, 6:00PM. We will meet in POWELL PARK outside.

Joshua Singer, DPR's gardening guru, will share 3 urban ag options.  Below is a summary with links to examples. I had the pleasure of visiting some of the DPR sites and invite folks to go and visit those too. One of the most amazing experiences was the Edgewood Communal Farm/Rooftop garden. I went during their produce giveaway, and I was immediately engaged with tons of neighbors all sharing and participating in the bounty and upkeep of the space. It' a huge community benefit and space for positive engagement through its opportunities for food giveaways, volunteering and education. Edgewood has a larger area so it also has a 'living forest' and beekeeping. They average 1500-3000 lbs of produce/season! (check out the pictures!)

Partner Urban Farms: Production and/or education farms managed by non-profit partners under the guidance of DPR.  These partners receive free utilities and site access in exchange for providing free programming and/or increased food access for the surrounding communities. https://dpr.dc.gov/page/partner-urban-farms 

Communal Farms: Urban Ag sites that are organized as communal production farms, managed by DPR staff and community volunteers, with the purpose of providing various ways for community members to receive free food, volunteer, and participate in hands on educational opportunities.  Communal farms can produce more food than community gardens but are more communal than partner urban farms.  Additional traits are listed below 

• Managed by DPR staff as production farms.   
• Community members can come during open farm hours, hosted by DPR staff and/or trained community leaders, to either volunteer, learn about farming, or harvest food.  
• There will be weekly produce giveaways for community members and local food pantries as well as community events throughout the year.  https://dpr.dc.gov/page/partner-urban-farms 

 Community Gardens: Urban Ag sites managed by a community cooperative group organized and guided by DPR, where every gardener gets a personal garden plot and the general site maintenance is shared by everyone. https://dpr.dc.gov/page/community-gardens