New partnership creates South Dallas urban farm
Decades ago a young boy from the Fair Park area rode a bike four or five miles to buy fresh produce for his mother. Years later, he gives back to the community that raised him and makes healthy food available to all.
Much closer than miles away, certainly.
“Growing up, it was me, my mother, my sister, and a brother,” said Tyrone Day, manager of Hatcher Station Training Farm. “My mom always gave me a list to go to the farmers market and buy kale, fresh fruits and vegetables so we could eat well on Sundays.”
One of the latest silver linings in the pandemic is the urban farming partnership, which is sprouting on vacant land next to the training farm in South Dallas. It is expected to lead to employment growth and access to fresh, nutritious food for the region.
The two groups that make this possible? Love, Titos (the non-profit extension of Tito’s Handmade Vodka) and Restorative Farms. The new apprentice farm near DART’s Hatcher Station will enable Restorative Farms to train a generation of local farmers.
The organizers hope it will ultimately be an opportunity to support even more community gardens and farms across Dallas and beyond. Day couldn’t agree more.
“With this program, the youngsters can grow and pick their own products on the farm with their own hands,” said Day. “It means a lot to them not to have to cause as much trouble as I had when I was a kid.”
Gardener Morris Moye from Restorative Farms distributes soil for the farm expansion project.(Ben Torres / special article)
The North Texas Partnership was established in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. At that time, Restorative Farms and Love, Tito’s, were planning their first personal service project, but had to cancel. They turned to support the farm’s new GroBox kits, which contain supplies for building a home garden.
The GroBoxes are another way to raise money for community efforts and farm development, and they are also donated to community members in need. Restorative Farms provides the seedlings and soil to start the box, as well as educational materials to help recipients grow fresh produce at home.
“This program was inspired by our Austin distillery farm to bring fresh produce to our own employees to encourage healthy eating,” said Lindsey Bates, program and communications manager at Love, Titos.
With the launch of the vaccine and the GroBox project, the project organizers are ready to reveal the teaching operations. Restorative Farms’ mission is to promote a vibrant and viable urban farming system in South Dallas.
Owen Lynch, co-founder and executive director of Restorative Farms, said the community is one of the poorest and most resource-poor areas in the country. Restorative Farms meets a need by providing access to fresh food in a food wasteland and jobs for local residents. The project will initially create five jobs.
Lynch said Restorative Farms is excited to use the teaching operations to support career growth, local food production and community well-being. With the new training farm, Restorative Farms can start its Future Urban Farmer program, which offers several training levels, all of which are practical and monitored by gardeners.
Lynch aims to address three main problems: providing healthy, affordable products; Create income for community farmers and producers; and offer training, employment, entrepreneurial and managerial experience.
The agricultural apprentices will have their own plots on which to grow for the next year. Day said he was grateful for a job that would allow him to give back to his community.
The agricultural apprentices will have their own plots on which to grow for the next year. Day said this will teach children in the ward the nutrients and different vegetables and how to prepare them.
Shelby Espinosa (from left), Christina Crean and Sophia Paradela, who all represent Tito’s Handmade Vodka, help set up GroBoxes for the expansion of the Hatcher Station Training Farm.(Ben Torres / special article)
The yard is stocked with a variety of paraphernalia to help make training successful and get groceries to the community quickly, including a tire house to protect the plants from the elements. The team will install more than 135 GroBoxes, which will eventually harvest an estimated 6,400 plants. The company is also planning an integrated irrigation system and an apiary with two honey bee boxes and starter colonies to promote pollination and delivery of honey.
“We have been fortunate to work with Restorative Farms on previous collaborative projects, but this is the first time we’ve worked on a project of this scale that is both interactive and practical,” said Bates. “We look forward to building a new farm from scratch.”
How to help
To find out more about the progress of the teaching company and the partnership, visit restorativefarms.org.
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