Urban Community Agri-Nomics (UCAN)

Education and training in gardening as well as personal and community food production. The expansion of our gardening operation by creating a YouthCan garden devoted to engaging more youth in growing vegetables for their families and community. The focus of the YouthCan garden is "Economic Compassion". Here we education youth and adults in the practice of not only selling some of their vegetables but also in donating to those in need. The garden for youth is actually an outdoor classroom complete with education and training in composting, seed harvesting and planting, and skills to grow an abundance of vegetables. Construction of the twelve raised bed garden included filling each with rich soil and a compost system, served to recruit more youth. The garden area of the farm was also expanded to include a hügelkultur garden which is a no-till garden. Here we focused on planting vining plants such as watermelons. In addition we planted additional fruit trees and berry bushes. Youth and adults were engaged in planting pollinators in the garden area as well as throughout the farm.

With an increase in services comes the need for an increase in contracting with or engaging with those local individuals with the skills and knowledge to teach. Since UCAN lacks the unrestricted funds to hire staff we entered into agreements with other organizations and individuals with expertise in various areas to instruct our youth and adults in trail building, dismantling of unsafe structures, building and other related skills. In addition with a focus on climate change and conservation we seek those with comparable skills.

UCAN continues to invest in the building of its infrastructure. Since we are reclaiming and old neglected farmstead that has not been tended in over seventy years, we must ensure that all structures utilized in providing services to the community are safe and sound. Our focus in this area included the digging of an additional well, removal of unsafe structures and construction of a walking trail as well as maintenance of our existing trading path. We acknowledge that there is more to health and wellbeing than have access to fresh nutritious vegetables. Access to open green spaces are just as important.