Just Harvest: Growing abundance in food deserts

by Zach Murray

Research has widely confirmed that millions of Americans live in communities that lack sufficient access to nutritious affordable foods. In many of these communities known as “food deserts” residents often travel well over a mile to access healthy foods most commonly available at grocery stores and supermarkets. Vulnerable low-income and minority households who have access to fewer supermarkets and vehicles than wealthier, predominantly white communities often populate food deserts. The USDA estimates that there are as many as 23.5 million residents of food deserts and 82.5% of this population resides in urban areas.

Physical distance to healthy foods adds pressure to vulnerable populations and is frequently linked to the preponderance of poor diet and in time to diabetes, obesity, and a number of diet related illnesses. The prevalence of small corner stores, convenience stores, and fast food, as well as the absence of supermarkets and other sources of fresh food, constitute a poor “food environment”. A poor food environment intensifies risk factors for obesity such as low-incomes, absence of reliable transportation, and lack of cooking knowledge. A number of medical professionals and scientists agree, a community’s food environment affects people’s eating habits, which are an essential contributor to obesity (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General, 2001). When low-income households and people of color lack access to stores that feature nutritious, affordable, high quality foods, it is more difficult to make healthier diet decisions that could lead to improved health outcomes.

Therefore, distance to supermarkets and the availability of public transportation are important determinants of a community’s access to healthy food. It is no coincidence that many residents living within food desert communities are also SNAP (Food Stamps) recipients. While research reveals that SNAP recipients face barriers in accessing vital social services, SNAP recipients also experience difficulties redeeming their benefits in their own communities. SNAP recipients live on average, 1.8 miles from a nearby supermarket and redeem their benefits 4.9 miles away from their home. When healthy food is out of reach, families whose budgets are already stretched thin must find extra money to pay for higher local prices or to cover extra transportation costs. Commonly, SNAP users attempt to stretch their dollars by shopping at distant large grocery stores, supermarkets, and supercenters where they experience cost savings.

The New American Farmer

Groundswell receives award to train immigrant and refugee beginning farmers

We're excited to announce a new, one-year grant award of $73,443 from New York Department of State's New Americans Initiative! This initiative is funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission, with support from the Southern Tier East Regional Planning Development Program. The new funding will enable us to enhance our outreach, training and farm business incubation for immigrant and refugee beginning farmers.

Getting the word out

Are you a “New American” immigrant, with experience in farming in your home country? Or do you work with refugees or other immigrants in your community who might be interested in small-scale farming? If the answer is yes, Groundswell needs your help.  Beginning next spring, we will offer customized training in farm business management, production and marketing, as well as personalized mentoring from experienced farmers and business advisers. For those with limited English language skills, ESL support will be provided. Affordable access to land, water and equipment will also be available at the Groundswell Incubator Farm, at EcoVillage in Ithaca, New York.

Our focus in the next three months is on finding out who might be interested, and getting the word out to them. We’re looking for help from New Americans and from community-based groups who work with New Americans in Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins Counties. If you know of individuals or communities who may have an interest in farming, please contact us at 607-319-5095 or info@groundswellcenter.org. 

Changing the face of farming
“Like previous waves of new Americans, these newcomers are engines for economic growth in our state,” said Secretary of State Cesar Perales.”We are proud to be partnering with Groundswell and others to fund a program that helps newcomers skilled in agricultural production realize their entrepreneurial dreams, while strengthening the Southern Tier local agricultural economy. By working with this population to fill education gaps, locate capital, and identify property suitable for agriculture projects, new Americans will increase employment opportunities in the region, and preserve the region’s agricultural lands.”

“This project will significantly boost our ability to train and support New American beginning farmers,” says Devon Van Noble, Coordinator of Groundswell’s Incubator Farm. “We’ve had a number of immigrant trainees who have been able to participate fully in Groundswell’s existing programs, but those with significant language barriers or cultural barriers need more customized support.”

“Our goal is to foster a new generation of farmers that reflects the diversity of culture, color, and class in our region,” says Rachel Firak, Groundswell’s New Farmer Training Coordinator. “Support from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the NY Department of State and Southern Tier East will help us connect with immigrant communities in our area, find out who is interested in farming, and help them get started.”

Thank you Groundswell Festival Vendors & Volunteers!

A painting of the Big Tent at our event.
Thanks to artist Khalil Bey!

Groundswell’s very first Local Foods & Farm Festival was a success-- and we couldn’t have done it without you!  Your participation made it a warm, informative and fun-filled event.

Our fabulous line-up of farmers, vendors and educators included West Haven Farm, Main Street Farm , Northland Sheep Dairy, Open Heart Farm, Wolf Tree Farm, Sapsquatch Maple, Edible Acres, Kestrel Perch Berry CSA, Dilmun Hill Student Farm, Kay’s Rare Cacti & Succulents, artist Khalil Bey, Crooked Carrot Community Supported Kitchen, Sol Kitchen, The Piggery, Cayuga Lake Creamery, Ithaca Youth Farm Project, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute, Gardens 4 Humanity, Farmshed CNY, Good Life Cookbook, Tompkins County Solid Waste and Ithaca Community Radio. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge, your enthusiasm and your goodies!


Thank you SO MUCH to all our Volunteers:

Our Parking Crew Barb Neal, Matt Limbach and Nikki Sayward were awesome directing cars and keeping the road clear ‘til the very end!  You are much appreciated!

EcoVillagers,  Gregg Pitts and Jeff Gilmore provided us with a portable solar trailer for sound, and Art Godin set up the sound system and kept an eye on it all day. It worked great!

Xiao Luo, our student intern from the Sustainability Center, did a fabulous job with outreach and media before the event. Way to go Xiao!

Volunteer Coordinator, Sarah Kelsen, worked tirelessly, throughout the day, with a big smile, checking in volunteers and directing them to their task.  Thank you Sarah!

Hooray for our Groundswell Ambassadors Gil Gillespie, Monika Roth, Sam Bosco, Fred Schoeps, Jemila Sequeira, Peter Bardaglio, and Todd McLane who shared their enthusiasm at the Groundswell table, along with lots of information about our programs.

Thank you Sam Bosco for manning our entrance table engaging the public with a warm smile and information and helping throughout the festival—Sam you are a keeper!

Norma Gutierez, Liz Karabinakis, and Olivia Armstrong were awesome, helping with vendor registration and set-up, and making sure their needs were met during the event.

To the New Roots Teachers Todd Ayoung, Rebecca Cutter, Rebecca Graham; vista workers, Alex Graham and Leslie Santi, and most of all, all the New Roots Students who pulled together at the last minute to provide us with all those terrific, vibrant signs and soulful music Thank you!

And what about those incredible musicians?  Solo performer Luke Gustafson, Aiden Nielsen-Hodges and Jonathan Seaman, and the White Clay Thieves band, who all managed to entertain the crowd with a great music vibe for our festival - you all were GREAT!  Thank you again.

And how fabulous it was to have Binta Wold, Aiden Cotrell and Sarah helping us with odd jobs and with clean-up! Many, many thanks!


Finally, a big thank you to Groundswell’s Steering Committee members, who helped shape this event, and who have shown SO MUCH DEDICATION to the Groundswell mission:

•    Gil Gillespie
•    Todd McLane
•    Julia Lapp
•    Jemila Sequeira
•    Sam Bosco
•    Fred Schoeps
•    Monika Roth
•    Peter Bardaglio
•    Jeanne Leccese

Thank you again one and all!  We couldn’t have done it without you!  If we missed someone, we do apologize—be sure that your help contributed to the success of our event!

We are in this together, all of us, to create a community of members who have access to healthful and affordable agricultural products; engaging diverse learners to empower them with skills, knowledge and access to resources so they can build sustainable land-based livelihoods and equitable local food systems.

From your friends at Groundswell
Millie, Devon, Joanna, and Rachel

Infrastructure, Equipment, and Tools

Digging a test hole at the Incubator Farm.

By Devon Van Noble

Finding or creating the right tool for the job. Using what you have in front of you. Self-sufficiency. Ingenuity. 

These are parts of farming that are really exciting to many farmers.  It’s an inspiring time to be part of the sustainable farming community, because there is a movement of innovative thinkers that are developing new techniques for producing and processing food that are cost-effective and accessible.  All types of farmers are utilizing these kinds of innovations to save money and labor, improve the function of their tools and farm, and most importantly, to create quality products without high-risk investments in capital.

Groundswell has been gearing up for the launch of the Farm Enterprise Incubator Program in early 2013, and began prepping fields at EcoVillage over this summer.  At the Incubator Farm, beginning farmers will be able to get access not only to land, but also to infrastructure, equipment, and tools. These things are essential to start growing food, but they're things that many new producers can’t afford before they are making sales of their own.  Once enrolled, Incubees will be able to lease land for up to 3 years before they graduate from the Program and are expected to transition to a new property.  This allows for new groups of beginning farmers to continue entering the program and benefit from the same infrastructure and resources.

Through a partnership between the Groundswell Center, beginning farmers, and support from the broader community, the “Incubees” will benefit from a three-year window to create enough revenue to capitalize their enterprise and transition to new land.  The community, in turn, will be supporting an enduring framework for new farmers to learn the skills and access the resources necessary to operate sustainable farm businesses that can feed local people.  The Incubator Program could play a significant role in the food and farming system in this region.

On October 21^st, as part of the Groundswell Local Food & Farm Festival, we'll launch the 2012 Incubator Farm Infrastructure Campaign through Kickstarter, which will help fund the construction of farm infrastructure and purchase of cost-effective equipment.  This infrastructure will be utilized by diverse beginning producers, making it possible for many to get started who would not be able to do so otherwise.  We believe this framework is critical to healthy local food and farms, and we invite you to be a part of supporting it.  Supporters will receive various benefits for participating, such as having your name engraved or painted on one of the fence posts, t-shirts, or a tour of the Farm.  Donations will be accepted at the Local Food & Farm Festival hosted at EcoVillage, and on the web into December.

Applications Now Open for Groundswell Incubator Farm!

When the ice melts next spring, and the sun starts warming the ground, Groundswell's first group of “incubees” will be moving into their newly-leased sites at the Groundswell Incubator Farm, located at EcoVillage. Application forms for the Farm Enterprise Incubator Program are now available online, and we are encouraging all types of beginning farmers to consider applying.

The Groundswell Incubator Farm offers a relatively low-risk entry avenue for new producers by providing access to land, production and marketing infrastructure, production support services (such as tractor tillage), and ongoing support from experienced farmer- and business- mentors.

If you think you might be interested in the Incubator, we encourage you to meet one-on-one with incubator Coordinator Devon Van Noble, who can answer your questions and help you complete the application forms. You can reach Devon at devon@groundswellcenter.org, or  (607)319-5095. Or you can find the application materials online at www.groundswellcenter.org. Click on Programs/Incubator.

The Incubator Application Form has two parts: Part 1 is a Personal Data Form and Part 2 is a Farm Enterprise Data Form. Your responses will give us a picture of your farm business concept, your cultural and farming background is, your current resources and your needs, both personally and for the business.

Learn about the Incubator Oversight Team...

About the Incubator Oversight Team

Starting a new farm business is a complex task, and creating a supportive environment for beginning farmers to grow their businesses requires a range of knowledge and backgrounds. The Incubator Oversight Team is composed of a mix of experienced and new farmers, business mentors, finance specialists, and landowners.

Since April of 2012, this Team has been meeting regularly to lay out the groundwork for the Incubator Program, and have been central in creating application materials. Together with Groundswell staff, the Oversight Team will be selecting a group of applicants to be Groundswell’s first group of incubee farmers by January 2013, and will continue to be involved in each incubee’s development through the program. The Team will serve as business and production mentors and will help each Incubee to assess their farm business plans, goals, and progress.

Groundswell Staff and the Oversight Team look forward to working with you on your farm enterprise. Get in touch with us if you, or someone you know, would like to apply.

Groundswell Offers "Sustainability Internships" to Area College Students

We'd like to extend a big welcome to new and returning students! 

To celebrate the start of the new year, Groundswell would like to announce two new student internship opportunities with Groundswell through the Sustainability Internship Program, a program of the Tompkins County Planning Department. The positions will be either work-study (paid) or volunteer position. Students of color and students with very limited financial resources are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please go to Sustainability Internship Program for more details on how to apply.

Intern 1: Administrative Assistant

Work directly with our Administrative Manager, Milagros Gustafson-Hernandez.  Duties include database entry, phone calls, research, organizational development, desktop publishing, post office runs and other tasks as needed.

Skills required:  Strong organizational skills.  Excel, Word, social media, and Google docs. 

Total Project Hours or Weekly Time Commitment:  5-8 hours per week, preferably for both Fall and Spring semesters

Intern 2: Community Outreach and Event Planning

We are conducting our first major community outreach event this fall - the Groundswell Local Food & Farming Festival, to be held October 21, at the site of our new “Incubator Farm” at EcoVillage. This is a critical opportunity for us to increase community awareness of our programs and strengthen our relationships with diverse populations in the Ithaca area community.  Assist Groundswell staff in planning, organizing, marketing, conducting, and evaluating Groundswell’s first Local Food & Farming Festival. Work closely with Administrative Manager Milagros Gustafson-Hernandez to recruit and coordinate volunteers, conduct outreach in the local community, develop informational materials, organize the educational program, and evaluate impacts.

Skills required:

Excellent organizational skills. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Strong skills with Excel, word processing, web-based communication and social media. Strong interest and enthusiasm about farming, food, multiculturalism and sustainability. Please indicate your level of experience with multicultural work or living situations in your application cover letter.

Total Project Hours or Weekly Time Commitment: 5-6 hours per week, up to 60 total hours. 

Internship Duration:    Fall Semester. May end in November if student prefers.

Please go to Sustainability Internship Program for more details on how to apply.

The Quintessential Black Farmer: Juju Harris

Juju Harris

By Kirtrina Baxter

Since my interest in this food justice movement began, I have met so many wonderful agriculturalists and foodies. The faces of a lot of these people are black and brown, and that is a telling statement of how the movement is bringing out and together those communities who are most affected by poor and non-foods. It is a fact that the poor health of those individuals in Black and Latino communities are more exaggerated due to the lack of healthy foods, and pioneers from these communities are making strides towards changing this. JuJu Harris from Maryland is just one of those pioneers.

Juju, as she prefers to be called, has years of experience in nutrition education and gardening. She is a passionate advocate of healthy living and works at the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, in the DC area. The Arcadia Center has many services and programs, including an educational farm, a mobile market, a farm-to-school network and is looking into providing a food hub. Juju works most closely with the mobile market. She says one of the things she enjoys most about this is seeing the same people week to week and talking to them about food.

Juju commonly sets up shop in several markets, and they all have an interest in serving people of limited means. One of the markets has a token program that allows SNAP, WIC and elderly residents with farmers market vouchers to trade in for tokens that are matched dollar for dollar by the produce vendors. This program only dispenses a certain amount of tokens to the recipients weekly so that their vouchers may last them the entire month. Although this program is not in any of the markets where Juju works, she sees that this program is most effective in helping folks to sustain their federal dollars towards healthy eating throughout the month. One of the pitfalls of receiving federal food dollars is the probability of running out of benefits before the middle of the month, making it difficult to feed families in the later days of the month.