Councilmember Robert Garcia celebrates the New City School Urban Farm with local youth.
3:30pm | Currently, the land is a vacant lot covered in dirt, flanked by an alley, an apartment complex and a car wash in one of Long Beach’s most dense urban communities.
Soon, the vacant lot will be flush with thriving crops, gardens and greenhouses, an outdoor classroom and an open market. Even a chicken coop.
On Monday morning, educators and schoolchildren from the nearby New City School joined Councilmember Robert Garcia and Department of Community Development director Dennis Thys to introduce what will soon become the New City School Urban Farm and Garden near the intersection of 15th Street and Long Beach Blvd.
The local charter school has hired a trained farm manager to monitor the crops and other plants, while children plan on frequently using the property to learn about cultivating healthy foods and nature in general. Members of the local community will also be able to claim a plot and grow and sell crops of their own.
“It’s going to become a place where the community as well as the school are going to be able to share in learning about healthy foods, healthy eating, learning about community gardening, learning opportunities about healthy living and also some things about taking care of the environment and about nature,” said Garcia.
New City Schools was interested in developing some kind of local farming program to teach students about healthy foods, as well as to create some green space. At the same time, the Housing Development Company was looking for a community project for the vacant lot, after purchasing it because it was deemed a blight on the community.
“This is a very important project that we’re very excited about,” said Thys.
The Port of Long Beach has donated three shipping containers that will become a tool shed, an office and a farm stand.
“Most of our families live right here in this neighborhood, the kids walk to school, and this is part of their neighborhood,” said Stephanie Lee, co-founder of New City Schools. “Our students are going to be involved in every aspect here: planting, weeding, harvesting and selling our produce to you and we hope you’ll be buying our future organic produce right here.”
New City Schools hired Adriana Martinez to monitor the property as Farm Manager. When she first met the students, she says, she asked them what types of healthy foods they wanted to grow on the farm.
Pizza. Their answer was pizza.
“That is a very clear indicator that projects like this are very much needed,” Martinez says. “Not only school gardens and farms, but community gardens or simply green space.”
New City Schools will hold a build day on June 10 from 8:00am-4:00pm to construct the next phase of the farm and garden and invite community members to come out and get their hands dirty.
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