“The idea is to teach people and senior citizens the benefits of home-grown food to stay healthy,” coordinator Andy McCain said.
Plans have begun to launch a community “urban farm” project this spring at Monroe County Community College that will be run by students and experts in the new vocational agriculture study program that started last fall at the college.
About 15 plots will be available in the half-acre project located just north of the college campus off Raisinville Road near the county intermediate school district, said Andy Mc-Cain, coordinator for the program. Each plot will be about 15 by 30 feet. Some raised beds are also being envisioned.
The educational project will start with a $79,000 Urban Grant awarded through the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Funds are to be used over two years to get the plots started.
“We’re getting it set and organized this spring,” McCain said last week. “We don’t call it a garden. We’re growing specialty crops and some will be on raised beds. We haven’t decided yet what to plant.”
Just about any vegetables sold at produce stands could be grown in the plots, including herbs, carrots, garlic, melons, tomatoes, pumpkins and squash, he said. Food grown in the garden will be distributed to needy families through local food banks or on an individualrun basis.
“Not everything is set in stone,” he said. “We still have some details to work out. There are specific grant requirements to meet. The idea is to get it to the food banks or have people” raise the food.
He and members of a steering committee and 10 students in the agriculture program will oversee the farm that will be part of 11 acres of farmland that had been leased to local farmers for grain crops in the past. The most recent three-year lease expired last fall.
The committee will meet again Jan. 26 to “scout” the field and discuss what type of crops to plant and where to park, he said.
Other members of the panel include Ned Birkey, a consultant and former extension agent for the county; Allen Russell, a health and nutrition instructor for the MSU Extension Service and a master gardener who maintains gardens at the county fairgrounds, and Tracy Rayl, a biology instructor at the college. Russell is already assisting with a similar community garden project at the Arthur Lesow Community Center, McCain said.
He may also reach out to Robert Dluzen, a retired extension agent who is overseeing the organic gardens behind the IHM campus in Monroe.
“The idea is to teach people and senior citizens the benefits of home-grown food to stay healthy,” McCain said.
Birkey will be asked to do tests on the fertility of the soil in the plots and the different types of seed as he has done for many years with grain crops in other parts of Southeast Michigan.
Despite some uncertainty, organizers are moving ahead with the project.
“It’s going to happen this spring,” McCain stressed. “If not, we would default on the grant. We don’t want that to happen.”