Mansfield in need of a 'food systems intervention'

A Kenyan government initiative is helping a growing community of residents to tackle food insecurity in one of the largest slum areas in Africa, championing an unusual form of urban farming: sack gardens.

A startup in California called Crop Swap LA is converting unused front yards into community gardens that can grow crops like kale, rainbow chard, and tomatoes as a way to feed neighbors. Community members can pay for subscriptions for up to $43 a month to receive a bundle of greens and vegetables from the microfarms and homeowners get a share of the profits. Each garden needs to have the proper maintenance, which can make it difficult to scale, but these gardens can help provide access to food to those who don’t have a grocery store in their area.

Brown's Super Stores operates seven profitable supermarkets in traditionally food desert neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The founder says it's because they brought together a group of community leaders and asked them exactly what they were looking for in a neighborhood grocery store, and used the information to truly create a space for the broader community that often includes health care clinics, banking services, event space, and more.

The Life Do Grow Farm in Philadelphia, run by the nonprofit Urban Creators, is a two-acre plot that yields food needed to feed the community who might not be able to make ends meet. Since June, the farm has distributed 65,000 pounds of produce, along with free children’s meals. But the farm is also a community gathering space for artists and entrepreneurs. While the land’s lease runs out in 2022, the nonprofit hopes to own it and highlight it as a “reimagination of city land, a radical collaboration in the service of empowering Black and brown communities in North Central Philly,” said the farm manager.

In a rural town in Wisconsin, a pilot project that hinges on micro-agriculture is bringing fresh produce to residents who do not have easy access to healthy, affordable food. The project, which has now partnered with food banks and Feed America and expanded to 27 states, provides a "farm in a box" to community members who are interested in pursuing small-scale local farming.

Emerald Garden farm in Colorado is a microgreens hydroponic farming operation that is using a comprehensive approach toward conducting business. From experimenting with new practices to reduce food waste to diversifying partnerships to enhance crop development, the owners have successfully scaled the initial operation and are providing food for fine restaurants as well as grocery stores a local school district and potentially hospitals.

In the United States, one in seven people are food insecure, and in Tucson, the number is even higher. Food banks increasingly find that their roles are not simply to distribute food, but to create sustainable change through "food literacy" - which is exactly how organizations like the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona are tackling the issue. They establish urban farms that not only provide the needy with fresh, local produce, but create a classroom for students, green areas for families to enjoy, and event space for the community to gather and learn.

Leftover food from publicly-funded school meals is not simply an issue of wasted tax dollars and environmental concern, it is a detrimental misallocation of much needed food for many students who still go hungry in schools across the country each day. The Share Tables program is helping to more equitably distribute food by providing a space where unopened items from one student's lunch may be deposited on a designated table (or tub, or shelf) for hungry peers to take - not only reducing food waste and child hunger, but helping students develop empathy and healthier eating habits.

Since its 2015 Expo, Milan has continued to foster a number of unique initiatives to combat food waste, promote healthy and sustainable food systems, and ensure that its people never go hungry. Through projects such as collecting unsold food at the end of market day for distribution in soup kitchens, using apps to redirect food waste, implementing new laws to ease the process of food donation, as well as fostering collaboration between cities, Milan is leading the efforts to prioritize food on the New Urban Agenda.

Urban farms across the country are incorporating creative strategies to make farms sustainable. Farms in Cleveland are teaching refugees to engage in agriculture as a way to adapt to their new community, while one farm in Michigan provides mentorship to other farmers looking to be successful from a business perspective. In order to make fresh produce accessible year-round, these creative ideas are helping meet the needs of farmers and consumers.