New Roots Urban Farm is a BIPOC-led farming collective based in northside St. Louis City. New Roots’ core mission is to build a localized food system that feeds and nourishes all, regardless of color, income, or zip code. We specialize in growing fresh produce that we share with community members directly impacted by food apartheid. We also provide sustainable farming education to neighbors and community members interested in growing their own food in their backyards, on vacant lots, in grow towers, or in their window sills. Our goal is to make growing your own food as accessible and exciting as possible! Across the street from our farm is a juvenile detention center where we run a weekly garden program with the youth. Together, we have built raised garden beds, chicken coops, and bunny hutches and have created a thriving urban farm. This program has been impactful and many of the youth have come to volunteer at our farm following their release. Lastly, New Roots is a space for people of all ages to come and experience a peaceful sanctuary in the middle of the city.
New Roots’ programs and services directly benefit the North St. Louis City community by:
1.) providing low-income communities with 5,000 pounds annually of organic produce and providing nutrition awareness services (all food produced at our demonstration farm is distributed to individuals and families directly impacted by food apartheid)
2.) revitalizing vacant lots using regenerative farming and conservation practices that remediate urban soil and reduce pollution
3.) providing sustainable farming education, training, and resources to community members interested in growing their own food
4.) providing paid workforce development training to youth, individuals with disabilities, and formerly incarcerated individuals
5.) providing educational workshops on local, state, and federal policies affecting urban residents and small-scale, urban farmers
A key component of New Roots Urban Farm’s rootedness is its physical presence which consists of a 0.14-acre demonstration farm spanning approximately 3 vacant lots. The farm serves as a hub and sanctuary for urban farmers and community members who are also low-income mothers, fathers, youth, elders, LGBTQIA+, formerly incarcerated, individuals with mental illness and disabilities, and individuals with little formal education. Youth and teenagers come to hang out after school, many of them calling the farm their “safe space where they can just be.” We maintain an open, welcoming space so that community members of all ages and backgrounds have a place in nature to: retreat to, enable healthy physical activity, and improve mental health; something truly rare in urban environments.
Additionally, New Roots Urban Farm is actively leading the charge in transforming St. Louis food and farm policy by developing not only new farmers, but farmer activists dedicated to uplifting their lived experience as growers and land stewards to shift policy to be more equitable for small-scale, urban producers and low-income communities at the frontlines of the climate crisis.
Your support will allow New Roots to continue to serve the North St. Louis City, and expand our farming operation to produce more food, offer more educational opportunities, and foster more partnerships with individuals and organizations across St. Louis.