Real Food Rising

Real Food Rising is still in the planning stages.  Email Mike at evans(at)uah.org to get updates and to work or volunteer with us when we are up and going. 

What

Real Food Rising (RFR) is an urban farm and a youth development program. It is modeled after the successful national youth development programs: The Food Project in Boston and Urban Roots in Austin and Growing Power in Milwaukee. RFR will incorporate innovative and traditional growing techniques with a diversity of vegetables, fruits, and animals. The food we grow will feed all sectors of the community, with some being donated to emergency food pantries, some being sold at farmers markets, and some being sold to restaurants. A seven-week summer program serves as the beginning and core of the youth program. During the school year, a smaller group of youth continues harvesting while delving deeper into sustainable agriculture methods, leadership, and public speaking. The youth program focuses on growing food, distributing it in Salt Lake, learning to cook and prepare it in healthy ways, serving people in need, and reaching out to kids in school about gardening and nutrition.

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Who

Real Food Rising will employ community members and high-school age youth. The youth will work 35 hours a week for 7 weeks in the summer and on a part-time basis on Saturdays and after-school in the fall, winter, and spring. As part of our 5-year plan to increase our capacity and the services we offer, 15 youth will be hired in the first year and they will have the opportunity to apply to continue on in higher level leadership positions. The number of youth interns will increase over time as we bring more land into cultivation.

In order to recruit a diverse pool of youth applicants, RFR staff will visit schools, churches, and after-school programs in the winter and spring to advertise the paid internships to high-schoolers ages 14-17.

Since Real Food Rising will be a community-centered farm, our programs will reach beyond our youth interns and the people who eat our food, to: the students who will come to our farm for educational tours; the adults who will dig their hands into the soil on volunteer days; and the elementary and middle school students who will participate in interactive presentations about nutrition and gardening at their schools and after-school groups led by RFR youth and staff.

How

Real Food Rising will practice sustainable agriculture on a diversified, organic 3-5 acres in Salt Lake County. The agriculture will be split between more traditional in-the-ground vegetable cultivation and intensive year-round greenhouse growing, which will include plants, animals, and fungi. In our recirculating aquaponics system, fish and microgreens will be grown on three layers in order to utilize the vertical space of the greenhouses and to mimic a healthy closed-loop stream ecosystem.

The youth workers and youth program will be central to the farm’s production as will a robust community of farm volunteers who will contribute significantly in the spring and fall when school will limit to the interns’ time on the farm. We will sell about two-thirds of our harvest at farmers’ markets (both at the downtown market and in low-income areas) and to restaurants. We will donate the other third of our harvest to hunger relief agencies in Salt Lake, where our youth will work on Wednesdays during the Summer Youth Program and on Saturdays in the winter preparing food for clients.

In the fall and spring, staff will train youth to give presentations on nutrition and gardening to their younger peers in school. In line with our plan to scale up production, land under cultivation, and number of youth interns over the course of our first five years, we will also begin by employing interns in the summer, fall, and spring, and will wait a couple of years to begin the winter component of the School Year Program, which will focus on farm planning, hunger, and food insecurity.

Click here to join the email-list to get updates about the program’s development and to find out about volunteer opportunities and job opportunities in the future.

Real Food Rising is still in the planning stages.  Email Mike at evans(at)uah.org to get updates and to work or volunteer with us when we are up and going.