Hilltop Urban Farm Youth Garden
Designer: Sarah Baxendell is a nonprofit and business development consultant and ecological, permaculture, and urban designer/planner known for her involvement in groundbreaking local food supply projects and urban ecological intervention programs which help communities connect more deeply with their natural environment.
Hilltop Urban Farm is a nonprofit, community-centered farm in Pittsburgh’s Hilltop community. With 23 acres dedicated to farming, it produces locally-grown crops, provides agriculture-based education, generates entrepreneurial opportunities, and strengthens communities. Hilltop Urban Farm suppors new business development, increase food access, and provide workforce training in the food desert neighborhood of St. Clair through a Farmer Incubation Program, Youth Farm and Farmer’s Markets.
Students at the one-acre Youth Farm will expand their understanding of basic food nutrition and food preparation, improve their attitudes towards eating locally grown fruit and vegetables, develop a thorough knowledge of garden ecology, learn about the nature of local and global agriculture, and how these systems affect the environment, consumers and local/global economies.
Design Narrative- Hilltop Urban Farm Youth Garden
700 Cresswell Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15210 www.HilltopUrbanFarm.org
Hilltop Urban Farm is a nonprofit, community-centered farm in Pittsburgh’s Hilltop community. With 23 acres dedicated to farming, it produces locally-grown crops, provides agriculture-based education, gener- ates entrepreneurial opportunities, and strengthens communities. Given its size, scope and reach, it will ultimately become the largest urban farm in the United States and serve as a resource for urban farming initiatives. Hilltop Urban Farm will grow produce to support new business development, increase food access, and provide workforce training in the food desert neighborhood of St. Clair through a Farmer In- cubation Program, Youth Farm and Farmer’s Markets.
St. Clair is a south Pittsburgh neighborhood that has been identified as one of the top 5 food deserts in Allegheny County by Just Harvest in its 2013 report, “ A Menu for Food Justice: Strategies for Improving Access to Healthy Foods in Allegheny County.” St. Clair fits the United States Department of Agriculture definition of a “food desert,” being a low-income community with a poverty rate of 20% or more (2010 Census).
Objectives of the Youth Farm
Students at the one-acre Youth Farm will expand their understanding of basic food nutrition and food preparation, improve their attitudes towards eating locally grown fruit and vegetables, develop a thorough knowledge of garden ecology, learn about the nature of local and global agriculture, and how these sys- tems affect the environment, consumers and local/global economies. Students will participate in in- school, after-school & on-farm gardening classes, lunch time fresh food tastings, nutrition and cooking classes, ecology and outdoor STEM. Program Outcomes – (1) Nutrition Education, (2) Local Food Sys- tems Education, (3) Exploring Agriculture as a Career Pathway.
The Children’s Food Forest is 6,050 square feet and will include 75 fruit and nut trees, including apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, nectarine, cherry, mulberry, service berry, pecan, hazelnut, elder, paw paw, persimmon, quince and fig trees. The food forest will also include comfrey, blackberry, raspberry, blue- berry, goumi, goji berry, currant, gooseberry, high bush cranberry, calendula, scallion, yarrow, new Eng- land aster, chives, thyme, ground cherry, ground hazelnut, strawberry, and daffodil.
Food Forest Project Budget, $5,000
PINA funds will be used exclusively for the use of the Food Forest planting, for plants and soil amend- ments. Labor will be provided by volunteers and the site already has wood chips and tools.
Target Population
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Students, teachers and administrators at Pittsburgh Arlington PreK-8 school, Lighthouse Cathedral, and The Neighborhood Academy
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Residents of St Clair and Mt Oliver City neighborhoods
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250 students annually, aged 4 to 18
Program Partners
• Penn State Extension
• Grow Pittsburgh
• Allegheny Land Trust Environmental Education team
Timeline for Implementation
• Youth Farm opens: April 2019
• Spring Programming with Pittsburgh Arlington PreK-8: March to May • **Food Forest Plantings at the Youth Farm: May & September 2019
• 1st summer programs: June to August 2019
The Youth Farm at Hilltop Urban Farm is one program within a larger site redevelopment plan that also includes a community garden, production orchard and 11.5 acre urban farmer training program. The one- acre Youth Farm will serve as the hub for community engagement in 2019.
Hilltop Urban Farm is currently hiring its second full-time employee, the Youth Farm Program Manager, with applications due by January 31, 2019. This full-time position will manage the development and implementation of the Youth Farm programs, opening in April 2019.
Within the Youth Farm, the Food Forest is one component of a larger design plan that includes raised beds, an orchard, a shipping container, solar panels, bird houses, benches, and a mobile cooler trailer. The Food Forest is located at transitional spaces between regular programming areas, so it can act as an exploratory zone for various age groups.
Although the overall fundraising goal for the Youth Farm is larger than the PINA grant can meet, establishing the Food Forest as an early component of the program is crucial both to programming and fundraising, by providing a completed perennial garden area that can mature an attract additional partnerships and support for the program. The expansion of gardens at the Youth Farm is an important component of completing the site design space in the 2019 growing season. Our staff looks forward to planting this Food Forest with adult volunteers and youth who engage in the program itself.
Press and Marketing
If awarded this grant, Hilltop Urban Farm will add PINA’s logo to its Partners and Funders section of our website: https://www.hilltopurbanfarm.org/our-partners/. Additional recognition will be provided via our social media channels during the planting phases of the Food Forest project. PINA can be provided, upon request, photographs of the installation and the programming with local children. Hilltop Urban Farm has already received significant local and national press, which can be viewed at: https:// www.hilltopurbanfarm.org/in-the-news/.
Sarah Baxendell
Sarah Ashley Baxendell is a nonprofit and business development consultant and ecological, permaculture, and urban designer/planner known for her involvement in groundbreaking local food supply projects and urban ecological intervention programs which help communities connect more deeply with their natural environment.
As a fundraiser and grant writer with over a decade of experience, Sarah brings a holistic approach to project design, planning, and funding that personalizes the way urban ecology projects positively impact communities.
Sarah received her Permaculture Design training from the BioRegional Center for Permaculture Living in Ellenville, New York. She also completed training in Sustainable Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. Her undergraduate degrees are in Finance and Business Administration, Marketing. Currently, she is a diploma candidate of the Permaculture Institute of North American (PINA) for her studies in Permaculture Site Design and Community Organizing & Development.