Decades ago, a small boy from the Fair Park area would ride his bike 4 or 5 miles to buy fresh produce for his mom. Years later, he is giving back to the community that raised him and making healthy food more accessible to all.
Certainly much closer than miles away.
“Growing up, it was me, my mom, sister and one brother,” said Tyrone Day, Hatcher Station Training Farm manager. “My mother used to give me a list to go to the Farmers Market and get collard greens, fresh fruits and vegetables so we could have a good meal on Sundays.”
One of the pandemic’s latest silver linings is the urban farming partnership sprouting up in a vacant lot next to the training farm in South Dallas. It’s expected to lead to job growth and access to fresh, nutritious food for the area.
The two groups making this happen? Love, Tito’s (Tito’s Handmade Vodka’s charitable extension) and Restorative Farms. A vacant lot no more after its Sept. 15 groundbreaking, the new apprentice farm near DART’s Hatcher Station will allow Restorative Farms to train a generation of local growers.
Organizers hope it will ultimately create an opportunity to support even more community gardens and farms throughout Dallas and beyond. Day couldn’t agree more.
“With this program, the youth can grow produce on the farm with their own hands and pick it themselves,” Day said. “It means a whole lot to them to not have to go through the hassle like I had to when I was a kid.”
The North Texas partnership was established in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. At the time, Restorative Farms and Love, Tito’s were planning their first in-person service project but had to cancel. They pivoted to provide funding to support the farm’s new GroBox kits, which include supplies to start a home food garden.
The GroBoxes are another way to generate dollars for the community and farm development efforts, and they’re also donated to community members in need. Restorative Farms provides the seedlings and soil to get the box started as well as educational materials to help recipients grow fresh produce at their homes.
“This program was inspired by the farm built at our Austin-based distillery to provide fresh produce for our own employees and to encourage everyone to eat healthy by doing so,” said Lindsey Bates, program and communications manager for Love, Tito’s.
With the vaccine rollout and the GroBox project underway, project organizers are ready to unveil the apprentice farm. Restorative Farms’ mission is to foster a vibrant and viable community-based urban farm system in South Dallas.
Owen Lynch, co-founder and executive director of Restorative Farms, said this community is one of the most impoverished and resource-depleted areas in the country. Restorative Farms fills a need by providing access to fresh food in a food desert and employment for local residents. The project initially will create five jobs.
Lynch said Restorative Farms is excited to use the apprentice farm to support career growth, local food production and community well-being. The new training farm will allow Restorative Farms to launch its Future Urban Farmer Program, which offers several levels of training, all of which are hands-on and overseen by horticulturalists.
Lynch aims to tackle three main issues: Provide healthy, affordable produce; create income for community growers and producers; and provide training, employment, entrepreneurial and leadership experience.
The farm apprentices will have their own plots to plan for growing over the next year. Day said he’s grateful for a job that allows him to give back to his community.
The farm apprentices will have their own plots to plan for growing over the next year. Day said this will teach children in the community about the nutrients and different species of vegetables as well as how to cook them.
The farm is equipped with a variety of essentials to set up the apprenticeship for success and to get food to the community quickly, including a hoop house to protect plants from the elements. The team will install more than 135 GroBoxes, which eventually will harvest an estimated 6,400 plants. The farm is also planning an integrated irrigation system and an apiary that includes two honeybee boxes and starter colonies to promote pollination and provide honey.
“While we have been lucky to work with Restorative Farms on previous community projects, this is the first time we will be working together on a project of this scale that is both interactive and hands-on,” Bates said. “We are excited to be building a new farm from the ground up.”
How to help
To learn more about the progress of the apprentice farm and partnership, visit restorativefarms.org.