Recipient Organization
Earth Learning
8201 SW 99 Court
Miami,FL 33173
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Community FoodWorks is being developed to address needs for both healthy food access and job training and food/farm employment opportunities for low-income residents in the three tiers of target constituents/audiences. These tiers are: the project site -- low-income residents of Verde Gardens; the community -- low-income residents of South Dade communities adjacent to Verde Gardens, and; the region -- low-income communities of South Florida. The core need is greater food sovereignty for low-income residents who face the highest rates of hunger, malnutrition, obesity, and diet-related disease. The needs to be addressed are: Healthy Food Access, Community Food Sovereignty,Community Food and Farm Enterprise, Organic Growing Capacity, Community Value Added Processing, Food and Farm Incubator Program, Affordable Access to Land, Local Food Infrastructure. Community FoodWorks is a unique project in that it is creating a model to address each of these needs at the community level, and to begin addressing them at the regional level.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
--Goals & Objectives-- Goal 1: To develop a self-sustaining organic polyculture farm Increased land dedicated to producing a wide diversity of organically-grown fruits, vegetables, dairy, and other foods. Related objectives: Develop and produce a diversity of income-producing value-added food products using commercial kitchen. Produce enough food to provide regular healthy meals for over 300 Verde residents and EBT/SNAP recipients in surrounding food-insecure communities. Increased growing capacity for South Florida to produce organic foods, allowing the Farm to tie-in to and serve local Food Hub and regional network customers. High-yielding integrated farm components requiring minimal inputs, completely set up and available for use by CFW trainees. Fully functioning farm market, kitchen/bakery, and food processing facility available for use by CFW trainees. Goal 2: To integrate current beginning farmer apprenticeship program and develop a farm/food system incubator program for skills training and microenterprise development Related Objectives: A new generation of farmers/producers enabled to grow and produce a large variety of foods on marginal urban land, both small- and mid-scale, to meet the demand for quantity and diversity without large investments of capital An increase in the number of local food micro-enterprises that will continue growing local food resiliency An established local farm and food system incubator program that is self-sustaining and generates new food businesses and employment skills Goal 3: To fully integrate the Verde Gardens resident community to become "stewards" of the Farm enterprise Related Objectives: A self-organized healthy and functional community of people with a purpose, who have learned collective decision-making skills Systems for self-employment and community-based economy A practice in limited food sovereignty A holistic national model for addressing multiple societal challenges (homelessness, food insecurity, ecological concerns, economic disintegration and joblessness) A functional community infrastructure capable of democratically overseeing the farm enterprise for the mutual benefit of the Verde Gardens community. Goal 4: To strengthen EL's Local Food Hub by providing a reliable, diverse, and sizable quantity of local, sustainable grown produce and farm products Related Objectives: New community connections throughout the local food system via our local food hub (both private and non-profit) New local food system infrastructure More locally-grown food in circulation More healthful foods reaching food insecure communities Increased access to local, sustainably-grown produce and farm products to farmers' markets, institutions, restaurants, coops, buying clubs, etc.
Project Methods
In the long run, our aim is that South Florida develops a food system that is a model for the world, and is just and fair, promotes strong communities and vibrant farms, supports healthy people, sustainable ecosystems, and thriving local economies Mid range changes include: CFW and the Farm at Verde Gardens are a significant employer in the local food and farming sectors The Farm expands beyond 22-acres to include other land in production The number and extent of ood-insecure communities and individuals is greatly diminshed in South Florida Other low-income communities adopt similar structures to achieve greater food sovereignity By the end of the project, we will have accomplished the following changes: CFW income funds at least 5 apprenticeships per year, continuing beyond BFR grant Farm is profitable, income covers all expenses, soil fertility exceeds production needs by 25% The Farm is run by a governance structure created by and for Verde residents Food Hub at Verde supplies high diversity/quantity of farm products to food-insecure markets --Evaluation-- EL has chosen to use Whole Measures for Community Food Systems as a framework for guiding its work and for evaluation of all of its projects, including Community FoodWorks. Whole Measures was developed by the Center for Whole Communities as a values-based system for planning and evaluating community food projects. Whole Measures goes beyond statistical reporting of outcomes and offers a more substantive and honest assessment of the values reflected in a project such as CFW and the impacts, both positive and negative, of the work effort. EL staff and partners have used this system for evaluating our beginning farmer apprenticeship program, developing and operating farmers' markets, and hosting a community food summit. Our use of Whole Measures at the community food summit was presented as a topic at the annual conference of the Community Food Security Coalition. This system focuses on 6 Fields and Practices that pertain to CFW and that will be used by EL, The Trust, MDCHC, and Carrfour for evaluation of project results in the following manner: 1) Justice and Fairness; 2) Strong Communities; 3) Vibrant Farms; 4) Healthy People; 5) Sustainable Ecosystems; 6) Thriving Local Economies --Evaluation Process-- The process using Whole Measures is designed to serve as an iterative process, with reviews and adjustments made at various stages of the project, including quarterly and annually, with a final assessment upon completion of the CFP funding period.