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By Steven Mendoza RIVERDALE PARK, Md. - At the Master Peace Farm, March might as well stand for manual labor. Children and parents push shovels and hoes into their plots, turning the soil in the community garden. The mood is upbeat; nearly all are returning gardeners eager to see their small plots bursting with organic vegetables. The half-acre farm, an initiative of the University of Maryland’s Cooperative Extension, is designed to connect young people and families to the earth, healthy eating habits and one another. Its goal, managers say, is to demonstrate that urban gardening can help relieve food scarcity in low-income communities while creating jobs. Twenty-three community plots are offered to local residents, who deposit $10 for the right to work the land. “We have been promoting urban agriculture as both an environmentally sound and an economically sound approach to community development,” says Margaret Morgan-Hubbard, founder and director of the Extension’s Engaged University, which launched this project in the Washington suburbs. Garden plots are hot commodities this year, says garden manager Vinnie Bevivino, a 2003 University of Maryland graduate in environmental science and policy. The farm, in its third growing season, has already signed up 21 community gardeners, and Bevivino expects the last two available plots to be gone very soon. At this time in its first year, the garden only had five or six gardeners, he says. “As it gets warmer and people realize that it’s gardening season, people will find us,” Bevivino says. He says he has also been approached by local community leaders wanting more information on what it takes to put in place a successful community garden. “No politician is going to embark on a program like this just because it’s cool or it’s neat,” he says. “They want to know numbers of what it’s going to cost and why they should put a farm there and not a condo.” The rise in demand for garden plots is in part related to the farm becoming more widely known in the community, says Morgan-Hubbard. But it's also a sign that the recession is making the prospect of self-production more appealing, she says. “That’s got to be a selling point for people [who] are having difficulties making ends meet.” In addition to community gardeners and volunteers, students from William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale come by twice weekly to maintain a youth garden on the farm. The Extension also has gardens at Nicholas Orem Middle School and Langley Park-McCormick Elementary, both in Hyattsville, Md. Crops from the youth garden and other parts of the farm such as the high tunnel, essentially a greenhouse, are sold to the Maryland Food Collective on the University of Maryland campus and at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market, where volunteers demonstrate healthy food preparation techniques. Last year the farm sold $5,000 of produce, and this year the goal is to sell $15,000, says Bevivino. All the revenue is put back into the farm. Bevivino emphasizes that not all the benefits that come from a community farm are easily quantified. Last year there were enough plots to give first-time gardener Carole Roberts the opportunity to grow on two. She was so successful that some of her produce was sold at the farmer’s market, but she felt so indebted to farm that she didn’t accept any money. "This has given me a new [outlook] on life," Roberts says. "You feel like you’re close to nature and God and everything." The farm is located at 6200 Sheridan St. in Riverdale Park, Md. The gate is almost always open, but the standard work day is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
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