Urban farm brings fresh vegetables front and center

CEDAR RAPIDS - First-of-the-season radishes are about to come out of the ground in the Time Check neighborhood, proof of the promise of a new day for a riverside spot largely destroyed in the Floods of 2008.

The radishes and the rows of other vegetables being planted on a dozen or so vacant lots in the northwest neighborhood are the product of a fresh idea for Cedar Rapids - an urban farm.

It's the brainchild of the non-profit neighborhood-building organization Matthew 25, which has worked as a partner with the Affordable Housing Network Inc. to renovate flood-damaged homes in 25 west-side blocks in the Block by Block program.

The group now divides its efforts among affordable housing, its Youth Empowerment program and the urban farm effort called Cultivate Hope.

After nearly a year of planning, design and discussions with City Hall, Matthew 25 secured a three-year, no-cost lease from the City Council on about 16 city-owned lots, most of which had flood-wrecked homes on them that have now been or will be demolished.

By and large, the lots are not available for building - most are in the 100-year flood plain or sit along the railroad tracks that cut through this piece of the neighborhood.

“We've focused on this place that not a lot of people wanted to invest in. It's a way for us to show some beauty and hope for this area,” says Clint Twedt-Ball, co-executive director of Matthew 25 with his brother, Courtney Ball.

The group expects to have about 1.5 acres on a dozen or so residential lots in vegetable cultivation this season, and a little more than 2 acres on all 16 lots in the years ahead.

Twedt-Ball and Ball emphasize that the point of the organization's urban farm is more than simply growing vegetables. Their hope is for the program to also teach youngsters the value of growing food and show them how to do it, and how to eat in a healthier fashion. The farm is intended to be something of a working agriculture classroom even as it produces vegetables to sell, they say.

Twedt-Ball says the Cedar Rapids school district has estimated that 40 percent of its students are overweight or obese, with the numbers perhaps higher in lower-income areas like Time Check.

“So there is a need to shift what kids are eating,” Twedt-Ball says.

Matthew 25's business plan for the farm leans heavily on the work of volunteers. The brothers predict that people will volunteer to support the farm's goals of education and community-building, while also using the experience as a team-building exercise for their own volunteer groups. This spring, a team of AmeriCorps volunteers has been doing much of the early planting.

To help cover the farm's costs, neighborhood residents and others can buy community-supported agriculture shares that will entitle them to receive vegetables from the farm.

As it gets off the ground, the farm this year will sell 25 shares, about half for $400 and half to residents of the nearby neighborhoods for a reduced fee of $200. A share will provide fresh produce weekly for 20 weeks. Twedt-Ball says area restaurants also have expressed an interest in purchasing some of the produce, and some also may be sold at farmers markets.

OPN Architects Inc. of Cedar Rapids and students at the Iowa State University College of Design have worked with Matthew 25 to come up with the urban farm's design, and both will be thanked along with others at the farm's dedication at 10 a.m. Friday in the 400 block of G Avenue NW.