Bringing Produce to the People with Greater Newark Conservancy
We envision Newark and its surrounding communities with universal and equitable access to nutritious food and a green, resilient, sustainable, and healthy urban environment for living, work, and recreation.
Vision of Greater Newark Conservancy
This summer, Greater Newark Conservancy (our grantee partner) is launching an exciting new project, funded in part by a recent Whole Cities Foundation grant. It will be introducing a mobile farm stand with the help of a new refrigerated van and a new mobile farm stand booth on a trailer, to allow the farm stand initiative to reach more areas in Newark. This is critical work, as the rate of food insufficiency in New Jersey has been hovering at 10% for the past four years (with a brief but short-lived improvement due to pandemic-era benefits). Black and Latinx people in the state are more significantly impacted, with food insufficiency rates of 17% in 2023 according to our grantee partner, Food Research Action Center (FRAC). Newark is a stone’s throw from Manhattan, and its 300,000 residents live in one of the most difficult areas of NJ to access transportation, exacerbating the ability to get fresh food.
The mobile farm stand program’s goals are to bring healthy fresh food to more community members while building the capacity of local growers, by increasing the volume of produce they’re able to help sell through the farm stands. The community-driven initiative, called Sprouting Fresh Access, will foster healthy eating, economic opportunity, and vibrant neighborhoods in Newark, while combating transportation accessibility issues. Sites for the mobile farm stand have been chosen collaboratively with members of the community.
Greater Newark Conservancy works to foster collaboration at the intersection of environmental, food, and racial justice; reverse the long history of systemic racism to improve social determinants of health; and expand access to green spaces, wellness education, and youth development in Newark, NJ. The program engages youth volunteers and interns to learn skills at the urban farms and help manage farm stands. Director of Development Brian Morrell shares, “The high school students assist in running the farm stands, all the while Interacting with the community, gaining experience running a small business, and learning about healthy produce.”
In addition to produce grown at the Conservancy’s own community farm, this distribution model supports harvests from 14 collaborative partner community gardens, fostering local economic development by providing supplemental income for local growers, and promoting sustainable practices. Youth volunteers and interns learn from the local growers, complementing the experience of running the farm stands.
Partnering with existing community gardens to supply the produce for the mobile farm stand will help the Conservancy highlight culturally relevant foods. Per Brian Morrell, “Collard greens, okra, and sweet potatoes are especially popular among our customers, but the local growers really know what the community likes to eat.” The produce sold at the farm stand will be accompanied by recipes to help share new ideas and ways to use produce that reflect the community’s preferences.
In addition to the new mobile farm stand initiative, the organization operates New Jersey’s largest urban farm and Newark’s first outdoor environmental center, which has been visited by nearly 40,000 youth. It has been providing hands-on, interdisciplinary environmental curricula to children in Newark’s schools since 1989 and currently serves more than 3,100 youth and adults through programs that emphasize healthy eating habits, improve access to nutritious foods, and nurture their skills. The Conservancy’s programs harness local residents’ capacity to improve their health and well-being.
