By Alayna Hutchinson | 90.5 WESA
Pittsburgh is one of 10 U.S. cities to receive part of a $9 million federal investment in urban agriculture.
The Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD), an urban conservation organization, was awarded $894,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency to support urban farming in the county through outreach, education and technical assistance.
ACCD plans to use this funding to bolster and expand their work over the next couple of years along with a group of other state and local organizations, partnering with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, Chatham University, Grow Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, and Hilltop Urban Farm.
“It’s really an opportunity to kind of create a big tent of service providers and kind of connect the dots between all of our collective resources,” said Heather Manzo, the executive director of ACCD.
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More than a third of the grant money will be allocated for sub-grants to urban growers to address their needs, like resources for soil health or raised garden beds, Manzo said.
“What we’re hoping to do is to tie together the different programs of the partners on the grant have with those grower groups,’” said Manzo. She said being in direct conversation with farmers will allow those growers to dictate what they need.
Funding will also support programs dedicated to education and access to resources for urban agriculture, including an urban grower “navigator” site that ACCD is developing, which Manzo said will house federal, state, and local resources available for farmers.
“First generation farmers have a really, really hard time getting going. And, you know, the percentage of farms that fail of all sizes is unfortunately too large,” said Manzo, “And so part of the first generation farming challenge is learning that these resources even exist,” said Manzo.
Food production is a main focus of the grant program — the funding is drawn from a $75 million investment in urban agriculture under the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan, which is partly dedicated to expanding nutritious food access.
Local produce helped sustain communities throughout the region when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the food system, said Denele Hughson, the Executive Director of Grow Pittsburgh, a nonprofit that teaches people how to grow food and distributes produce from their urban farm sites across Allegheny County.
“Urban farming is a key component of economic development for our communities, but also really the only way we’re going to really make sure our food system is secure is to make sure people have the ability to grow their own food close to home,” said Hughson.
Grow Pittsburgh plans to use a portion of the funding to provide paid urban farming training over the next year for at least 50 people through their pre-apprenticeship program, which is a training program for new farmers in partnership with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.
A table at the Hilltop Urban farm in Pittsburgh. Katie Blackley / 90.5 WESA
Hilltop Urban Farm, a community farm in Pittsburgh’s Hilltop neighborhood that provides agriculture-based education, has similar plans for the grant money. Executive Director John Bixler said he’s hoping the cash will help expand their Farmer Incubator program, which provides access to land and other resources at their farm to mostly first-generation growers.
“We really want to up our game and offer more training in business planning for our incubator participants,” said Bixler, “And so this is perfect timing for us.”
Bixler said another benefit of the grant program is that it will connect incubator participants to the Farm Service Agency and other federal resources, and — he hopes — help government agencies learn how to serve urban farmers.
“So much of the concentration between these agencies and the public has been focused on rural growers,” said Bixler, “So as more urban growers come into the mix, it’s really important that the people who are growing know what’s out there. And then that the agency has a better idea of how to better serve this growing population of urban growers.”
