PA Horticultural Society Receives Grant To Create Farm For The City Program

The PA Horticultural Society Tuesday announced it has been awarded a $300,000 grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to spotlight healthy food access issues and invite the public to help solve these issues through urban gardening and farming.

PHS will accomplish this goal by creating a temporary farm across from City Hall next year and engage the public in a dialogue designed to galvanize action to increase access to healthy food for all Philadelphians.

Titled “Farm for the City: Growing for Greater Good,” the urban agriculture project will be created on 2,000 square feet on the Thomas Paine Plaza of the Municipal Services Building, 1400 Arch Street in Philadelphia.

The demonstration farm will open in summer 2018 and continue into the fall as a site for dynamic public forums, gardening workshops and performances.

The programming will bring people together in a civic discussion about social equity and food security, encourage policies that promote healthy communities, and highlight ways urban agriculture strengthens neighborhoods.

“We are extremely grateful to The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage for supporting the creation of this extraordinary project,” PHS President Matt Rader said. “We hope it will bring together Philadelphians from diverse backgrounds and points of view to work toward food security for everyone. We also believe it will demonstrate the power of horticulture to transform communities and lives.”

The farm will produce an estimated 1,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables to be donated to Broad Street Ministry, which is dedicated to serving the homeless.

Young apprentices will assist in the food production on the farm and will engage visitors in dialogue about urban gardening and social issues related to food security.

Broad Street Ministry also will host two community dinners for 150 people, featuring food grown at the farm, to facilitate conversation about food access and community revitalization.

Participants in the dinners will be a cross-section of city residents, city officials, young people, homeless individuals, people transitioning from prison, and immigrants.

Click Here for information on PHS’s City Harvest Program.

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