Video by Kelcie Johnson
As urban agriculture spreads through cities across the country, local nonprofit Keep Phoenix Beautiful is dedicated to providing downtown Phoenix residents farming opportunities in their community.
Tom Waldeck, CEO of Keep Phoenix Beautiful, said Phoenix is focused on increasing the social benefits of urban farming, proven by the creation of organizations like PHX Renews.
PHX Renews is an initiative to fill vacant lots. It’s currently operating out of a 15-acre lot in downtown Phoenix. The lot provides approximately 16 organizations land for community gardens, personal farmland and program usage.
One of the organizations using the lot, the International Rescue Committee, operates a branch of its New Roots program on the PHX Renews land, which works toward helping refugee families achieve food security, self-sufficiency and economic empowerment.
“A lot of people don’t realize that the refugee population here is huge and these refugees come from overseas, places like Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, or Iran,” Waldeck said. “They get a row or two to grow whatever they want, and the produce they grow can either go to their table or you’ll see them at farmer’s markets.”
New Roots Program Coordinator Timothy Olorunfemi said the Arizona branch is one of the biggest areas for refugees.
“The new emphasis is on the program for people who have agricultural backgrounds from their country and want to continue to farm,” said Olorunfemi. “Or, they don’t have the background but are still interested.”
PHX Renews has people from different countries working together on the same plot of land, according to Olorunfemi.
“They feel welcome so that will bring them together,” Olorunfemi said.
When the program started in Phoenix it had approximately 9,000 square feet of land and has expanded to 2.35 acres.
“We give them three rows, but if they do really well we’ll give them crazy rows. This guy has six rows, this guy has 18 rows,” he said. “They don’t only produce for their families, some of them sell. The produce they make is all theirs.”
The MANA House is a transitional living program in downtown Phoenix for Marines, Army, Navy, and Air Force veterans. Its kitchen uses urban farming to grow produce for meals, according to Ken Leonard, project manager for the program’s community garden.
“I grow it, I cook it, and I’m the chef,” he said.
According to Leonard, the garden has several purposes; first, it supplements the kitchen.
“And second, we provide agricultural therapy for veterans experiencing PTSD, substance abuse, stress disorders, anxiety — anything like that.”
The garden also works to gives back to the community. Any extra produce from the garden is sent to local nonprofits such as the UMOM New Day Center, a nonprofit for women and families, and the Tumbleweed Youth Drop In Center, a nonprofit for homeless children.
The Cultural Cup Food Bank, a food bank and free clinic for local community members, is another group that grows food at PHX Renews.
Eric Louis, a volunteer who works with the crops, hopes to feed approximately 30 families when the crops are harvested.
“They only get fresh vegetables once a week from St. Mary’s and, other than that, they’re out,” Louis said. “I thought my eight-by-eight plot was going to feed more of them. I would occasionally bring them a couple things here and there and they loved it because, like I said, everybody should get some fresh vegetables.”
The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, a service mandated by congress to provide outreach to people with an interest in farming, holds beginner farmer programs in the city. The agroecology program of the Cooperative Extension works with PHX Renews to use their land as an incubator farm for beginning farmers.
In 2011, they launched the farmer program for beginners to address the need for the people trying to break into agriculture.
“We make some space available to them so that [the new farmers] can try things with low risk,” Young said. “The city pays for the water and the land, we give them access to tools and we provide technical support. They have to provide their own labor and manage their own crops but they can try some things without taking a lease.”
The cost of starting a personal farm in the city varies depending on factors like location and the farm’s purpose.
Although PHX Renews already provides the water and supplies for 150 garden beds, they continuously have a waiting list, Waldeck said.
“These apartments around here and the neighborhoods with the single-family homes garden here, and you’ll see some of them at farmers markets,” he said. “Three years ago we started with a dozen initial garden beds and within 48 hours we had requests for 80 more, so there is a need.”
Contact the reporter at Melanie.Whyte@asu.edu
