These days it’s hard to find a neighborhood on the West Side that doesn’t have some sort of gardening or farming initiative rooted. Whether it’s a tree farm, garden cooperative, organic garden or anything else that revolves around the idea of reclamation through grassroots empowerment. Take this group of MAP, PUSH and Americorps workers that I ran across yesterday (near the corner of Brayton and Mass) – believe it or not, this urban farm has been around since 1998. Since that time, 50-60 youth a year learn the importance and practical applications of tilling, seeding, reaping and providing.
I spoke to Zoe Hollomon (left) about the program – she was quite insightful regarding the positive ripple effect demonstrated. “It’s been proven,” she began. “That many of the elderly people who eat our fruits, herbs and vegetables normally only have mostly access to convenience stores – the stores are too convenient. That means that they don’t have access to cheap fresh foods. We don’t make money on this – that’s how we can compete with the convenient stores. We’re also involved with the Farm to School initiative. We’re working with six schools at this point to get quality local produce into the students’ diets. Plus, now that the MAP greenhouse is complete, we can grow year ’round.”
Last April I posted an article on MAP’s efforts to construct a West Side greenhouse. At the time, project leader, Kevin Connors, told me that the last 5% of the project was going to be the hardest to complete. I’m glad to hear (and see, above) that the effort has paid off. I’m also happy to report that MAP obtained a grant allowing them to purchase a gigantic rainwater cistern. According to Kevin, they are starting hyrdoponics in the greenhouse – an even larger effort for an onsite Urban Farms Development Center is underway. I have to hand it to all of the groups involved with these West Side organic initiatives. I never thought that I would be backlogged with a list of urban farming posts…