Improving community outreach and education methods in Sustainable Agriculture

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: agroforestry, beekeeping, intercropping, no-till, pollinator habitat, pollinator health, postharvest treatment, seed saving
• Education and Training: demonstration, display, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, study circle, workshop, youth education
• Farm Business Management: agritourism, farm-to-restaurant
• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, organic agriculture
• Sustainable Communities: ethnic differences/cultural and demographic change, urban agriculture

Our project addresses the lack of information and resources on sustainable agriculture available to food insecure households. The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and unemployment in minority households resulted in a major increase in the demand for access to local food, plants, seeds and resources to ameliorate increasing food insecurity. Sankara Farm and Soulutionary Wellness LLC experienced increased demand for seeds, transplants and educational opportunities in sustainable agriculture due to this dual crisis.

 “Feed Ourselves to Free Ourselves” project will provide outreach, education and resources to new growers and students and increase the capacity for sustainable community production, including the increased capacity to produce and distribute transplants, seeds and resources for sustainable agriculture practices in food insecure communities. We will increase capacity by improving our irrigation system, expanding pollinator habitat, plant propagation capacity and provide a culturally relevant interactive Agrotourism experience and educational opportunities for minority and food insecure households. 

1. Increase access to local healthy produce and sustainable agricultural resources to food insecure households
2. Provide hands-on workshops demonstrating value-added production herbalism and nutrition
3. Introduce the concepts of sustainable agriculture the public through group discussions, video presentations and book readings and mura
4. Provide community with resources on sustainable agriculture by purchasing Farming While Black (2018), and The Cooking Gene (2017) for 20 participants including 10 High School students  and 10 community participants
5. Increase access to culturally relevant sustainable agriculture resources for minority communities
6. Increase native pollinator habitats 
7. Increase water use efficiency by installing moveable irrigation system to pollinator garden