CHICAGO — A $350,000 grant has been used to open a community farm in Austin.
The Parent Child Center Austin Community Farm, 330 N. Lotus Ave., will provide organically grown produce at weekly markets. Visitors are able to volunteer at the farm and learn about gardening, nutrition and community-building, according to a Humana news release.
The Parent Child Center is an organization that provides health care and support services to underserved communities.
The farm was developed with a grant from the Humana Foundation and is built on an 8,000-square-foot plot bought in 2012. The area was designated a "food desert" by the Department of Health Resources and Services Administration, meaning it lacks "adequate access to affordable and healthy food," according to Humana.
The Parent Child Center broke ground in October 2014. Now it has plots full of ripe tomatoes, greens and other veggies.
"Ultimately, the farm will allow opportunities for purposeful physical activity to unite with nutrition education, building a foundation of wellbeing for PCC patients, staff and community members," according to the center's website.
Farms may soon pop up throughout the city's west side, as well: Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week announced that Urban Transformation Network and the USDA National Resources Conservation Services are working together to provide support and assistance so more farms can be developed.
Those efforts are part of Emanuel's strategy to get rid of food deserts. Since 2012, urban farming acreage across the city has grown by a factor of 13, according to a news release from the mayor's office.
Other initiatives — like making it easier to use eggshells and vegetables for composting — have also been aimed at creating and expanding urban farms in the city.
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