Posts By Stephanie Fenton
Urban Farming and Food Access Org Grows Hope and Food in Ypsilanti, Michigan
August 24, 2016 | Stephanie Fenton
Growing Hope trainees receiving wisdom from community gardeners. Photo courtesy of Growing Hope.
Unbeknownst to the tens of thousands of students and professionals who pour into Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan yearly is that many of the citizens who call Ypsilanti home live in food desert — approximately one in three lives below the poverty line, and car ownership is low. Yet hope has come to this community in the guise of a seemingly unassuming converted 1930s farmhouse that harbors an educational powerhouse for the community in its backyard.
From its 1.4-acre site, the 501(c)3 organization Growing Hope operates hoop houses, a number of farmers’ markets, organizes more than 700 volunteers annually, works with state-run organizations and advocates on a national level to support and strengthen farmers’ markets. Read More
Quality Produce and Strong Relationships Sustain Swainway Urban Farm
August 7, 2016 | Stephanie Fenton
Joseph Swain, head farmer at Swainway Urban Farm located in the Clintonville neighborhood of central Ohio. Photo courtesy of Swainway Urban Farm.
Being your local neighborhood farmer is a job that Columbus, Ohio urban cultivator Joseph Swain takes very seriously—and, to prove that, he may just bring one of his intensive garden designs right into your backyard.
“We can relate to our neighbors because we, too, are backyard gardeners,” says Swain, whose first backyard garden transformed into a renowned urban farm that now produces for farmers markets, food trucks, local health stores and approximately 15 restaurants. “I’ll advise people on how to best maximize their space; how to get two rows where they thought there could only be one.”
Inspired by the high-density ideas promoted by the likes of Eliot Coleman, Swain adds, “I think we inspire people to grow food for themselves.” Read More
Women in Food: Shavel’le Olivier Uses Power of Connection to Engage Youth in Improving Food Access
July 20, 2016 | Stephanie Fenton
Shavel’le Olivier (in glasses), leader of the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition Vigorous Youth with the group’s Mobile Market team. (Photo courtesy of Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition)
On the streets of a Boston, MA neighborhood where one grocery store was vastly outnumbered by fast-food venues, and health reports consistently revealed staggering numbers of chronic disease cases, 17-year-old Shavel’le Olivier sought to become a force for change.
Now, seven years later, Olivier leads the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition Vigorous Youth group, a thriving youth organization that is working to increase food access and improve health outcomes in the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan.
“Our mobile farmer’s market is totally youth-led, and we’ve brought our farm stand to the bus station, the local health center and senior residences,” says Olivier. “We started Mattapan on Wheels. We are about to begin Mattapan Flavors. We’re always asking, ‘What can we do now?’” Read More
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