Urban farm gets boost to help meet rising food insecurity
Most of the produce grown at Urban Roots London is donated or sold at discounted rates
A non-profit urban farm is looking to expand its operations to meet growing demand for donated and affordable food.
With the help of community funding, including a recent capital grant from the city, Urban Roots London is installing a new 96-foot greenhouse as well as a natural gas heating system that will allow them to produce higher yields throughout the winter months.
"We're really looking forward to what we're going to be able to do in this next chapter of having real winter production," said Anna Badillo, the farm's director.
Urban Roots is a sustainable farm that grows produce on underused land in the city, with their flagship location on Norlan Avenue in east London. They partner with organizations across the city, distributing produce to people in need.
Aside from direct donations, they run an affordably-priced market twice per week, along with providing produce for 12 neighbourhood pop-up markets through the Middlesex London Health Unit's Harvest Bucks Program.
Through the pop-up markets alone, the non-profit has provided 5,000 households with about 34,000 pounds of produce, free of charge. Demand is growing yearly among people of all different backgrounds, said Badillo.
"I think it's just telling of the times that we're in right now," she said. "With the rising cost of food, it's just harder and harder for families."
The high demand hits the markets the hardest, Badillo said. Sometimes more people show up than there is produce to go around. Each week, they are only able to harvest and distribute as much as they've been able to grow, but the new upgrades should increase yields by about 30 percent, according to Ben Wilcox, who manages the farm's operations.
All of that excess will go out into the community, he said.
"It's more donations and higher capacity for community resource centre pop-up markets," he said. "Those are the streams that are very aligned with our mission of getting everyone access to healthy food."
Infrastructure improvements will also help increase production in less direct ways by dealing with inefficiencies. Currently, winter crops require extra labour costs and volunteer hours to maintain, by placing and removing row covers, for example.
A central heating system will make these covers obsolete. Due to current space limitations, seedlings are also cared for at a rented nursery space, so having everything consolidated at one farm site will make the growing process much more efficient, Wilcox said.
The total combined cost of the new greenhouse and heating system is estimated to be just over $100,000.
Wilcox explained that the funding for the heating system is already secured, but they are still sourcing the full amount for the greenhouse through different grant opportunities. The final amount might affect how large they are able to build it, but a new greenhouse will be built no matter what, he said.
"We're just trying to provide some dignity of choice through food, so folks can choose the healthy option and have access to that at a price point that they can afford."
