An Urban Farming Community

What We Are
We are a community urban farm managed and maintained by a small radius of households. There is one full time administrator and a handful of gardening teams who rotate on a daily basis. The teams follow an online schedule through a community website and accompanying iPhone app. All of the gardeners receive updates on who's done what in the garden through these applications. The food grown in the garden feeds the families who work there and any overage is sold for profit at the local farmers market.

Activity
The garden is located in the heart of the community on leased land owned by the city. There is easy access by road for cars and small trucks. It is enclosed by a tall wooden fence to keep out wandering animals. The local residents who work the garden plant two times a year, in teams, the take care of the garden on a schedule system, they make their own compost, recycle all their own garden waste and use water collected in large open top containers to conserve resources. Once a month overage produce that is not used by the gardeners and their families is sold at a local farmers market.

Shared Values
We believe in growing our own food for the neighborhood for three reasons:
1. building community spirit: working together forms new friendships and gives greater appreciation of differences and the community around us
2. organic food is healthy: kids study better, people work harder with more energy and mood is brighter when you eat food that hasn’t been chemically treated
3. organic foods cost less: reduce family food budgets and emissions created when transporting foods

How Influence Works
John attends the monthly garden meeting where he spends time giving feedback to his team leader about the work they are doing. He feels the garden is not only a place where he can work out his passion for growing things but that he also has input on how the overall project is going. His team leader is a great listener and implements a lot of the changes he talks about because he trusts John.

A Shared Emotional Connection
The community garden workers all meet on the last Thursday of every month. They enjoy a big community meal together, some training on gardening and time to input and feedback to team leaders. This evening is the heart of the garden project and facilitated through an online website with accompanying iPhone app. Collected membership finance helps to provide the necessary tools and supplies to keep the garden running.