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City Fresh

City Fresh, a joint intiative between the New Agrarian Center (NAC) and Ohio State University Extension, is a local food project designed to build a more just and sustainable local food system in Northeast Ohio. City Fresh seeks to meet the needs of both urban and rural communities by improving access to fresh, locally grown food for urban residents and marketing opportunities in the city for local farmers. The City Fresh program impacts the local food system through the development of neighborhood food centers called Fresh Stops, nutrition education, urban market garden training, and the cultivation of direct farm to business connections.

City Fresh is funded through the USDA Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFPCGP). Community Food Projects are designed to increase food security in communities by bringing the whole food system together to assess strengths, establish linkages, and create systems that improve the self-reliance of community members over their food needs.

The City Fresh program includes over 14 community partners. The convening organization is the New Agrarian Center, based in Oberlin, Ohio, and the key collaborating partner is Ohio State University Extension (OSUE) Cuyahoga County. The New Agrarian Center has experience with local agriculture and farm to campus food projects. OSUE links the resources of OSU and the land-grant system to improve the quality of life of urban residents. OSUE directs its expertise in horticulture, food and nutrition education, community development, business planning, fiscal management, vegetable crop science, direct marketing assistance, and administration to the development of food centers and urban agricultural programs.

Community Partners include:

• Clark Metro Community Development Corporation (CMCDC)
• Cleveland Department of Public Health
• Cuyahoga County Planning Commission (CCPC)
• Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy (CVCC)
• Great Lakes Brewing Company
• Heifer International
• Innovative Farmers of Ohio (IFO)
• Mt. Zion Community Center
• Ohio Farmers Union Cooperative Development Center
• Slavic Village Development
• Urban Community School (UCS)
• WECO Fund (Working for Empowerment through Community Organizing)

City Fresh Market Garden Training

Initiated in the winter of 2006, the City Fresh market garden training program is coordinated by OSUE and aims to develop a learning network focused on the promotion of urban agriculture in Cleveland and other traditional urban centers in Northeast Ohio.

The market garden training program has five primary features:

1. Education and training on basic business planning and growing techniques suited to urban areas.
2. Hands-on learning through workshops at the George Jones Farm and Nature Preserve in Oberlin and market gardens in Cleveland.
3. Organization of youth entrepreneurship through summer employment opportunity.
4. Cultivation of a network of urban market gardeners to promote sharing of tools, equipment, knowledge, and marketing.
5. Provision of start-up funding for urban agriculture enterprises.

While farming is traditionally viewed as an activity confined to rural areas, much can be done on vacant city lots. The Cleveland City Planning Commission estimates that there are over 2,700 acres of vacant land in Cleveland. Urban agriculture requires an intensive use of limited space, pursuing such horticultural techniques as succession planting, companion planting, soil improvements through composting of urban food or processing wastes, greenhouse production, beekeeping, or propagation of crops in indoor environments (such as mushroom propagation or hydroponics).

Given that the residents of Cuyahoga County collectively purchase more then $3 billion of food each year, there are multiple opportunities for residents to turn vacant lots into productive urban market gardens. Close proximity to restaurants, corner grocers, farmers' markets, or Fresh Stops reduces transportation time and makes marketing easier. Additionally, the market garden program can provided a new approach to creating urban green space.

Fresh Stops

The Fresh Stop offers a way for neighbors to easily connect with food that is locally grown by farmers within the city and in the surrounding countryside. In the process, communities come together as participant meet other neighbors, interact with youth, learn important facts and tips about nutrition, sample locally grown food, and share in fun events, including music and potlucks. All food available at a Fresh Stop is picked up directly from participating farmers.

A couple of older patrons recalled a time not so logn ago when farmers would drive trucks full of produce to neighborhoods in Cleveland and sell their harvest right off the truck. While most food today travels 1,300 miles and can be off of the vine for more then 8 days, food at a Fresh Stop is picked fresh and delivered fresh.

Fresh Stop offers weekly "market bags," which include a mix of produce available from local farmers each week. The contents of each week's bag vary according to what produce is available that week. The market bag program is a form of cooperative purchasing in which a group of neighbors purchase a share of produce from a local farmer. The farmer receives payment up front in exchange for a bounty of produce throughout the growing season. This is a form of "community supported agriculture" in which a group of people support a local farmer or group of local farmers by committing a portion of their weekly food budget to supporting that farm. The benefits include:

• Fresher food that tastes great
• Keeping dollars in Northeast Ohio's economy
• Keeping farmers on their land
• Building connections between communities (urban and rural)
• Reducing fossil fuels burned for long-distance transport
• Cutting down on carbon in the atmosphere

Market bags are available in two sizes: a "family size," for $20 / week, and a smaller bag, for $10 / week. Low-income families and individuals are offered subsidized half-price bags. Market bags also include recipes, nutritional information, and other updates prepared by staff at OSUE's Nutrition Education program in Cuyahoga County.

EFNEP provides nutrition displays and presentations on current nutrition topics, like the new MyPyramid, fruits and vegetables -- how they help prevent chronic diseases, healthy choices when eating out, nutrition facts labels, etc. After attending 10 sessions, Fresh Stop participants receive a certificate of completion from OSUE, a recipe book, and a week's share from City Fresh -- free -- a $20 value!

Food plays a significant role in the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. However, trying to eat right can sometimes be a challenge, because of cost, availability, or just not knowing how to prepare something healthy. City Fresh and OSUE's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) have come together to help overcome some of these challenges.

The first Fresh Stop operated in the Clark-Metro neighborhood during the summer of 2005. There will be six to eight Fresh Stops opening in Cleveland in June, 2007: Old Brooklyn and Kamm's Corners neighborhoods of Cleveland, and in Lakewood and Elyria. Fresh Stops continue to in the Clark-Metro, Detroit-Shoreway, Slavic Village, and Oberlin neighborhoods.

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Created: 2008-04-11, Updated: 2008-04-28