BFRDP Projects

Newark Science and Sustainability (NSAS) as training lead, working in partnership with the Newark Community Food System (NCFS) as the community recruitment lead, and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ), formed a
partnership between urban community farms and the state’s organic farmers and addressed some of the barriers that have held back underserved communities from entering organic agriculture. Through the establishment of our beginning farmer and rancher training we directly impacted Distributional Access, Procedural Inclusion, Structural Accountability, and Transgenerational Impact by exposing community members to the world of Urban Agriculture, Entrepreneurship through Agriculture, as well as Health and Wellness. It was our intention to decrease the dependence on the external supply chain and build current and future self-sustaining communities. Our program was the only program specifically targeted:

• Essex County
• Newark, NJ
• urban farming
• historically underserved communities

In addition, through ourextensive network, we reached a diverse population of participants ranging from novice farmers to the city's veterans and formerly incarcerated populations relevant to the program goals. Beyond systemic racism, we affirmed that urban farming was critical to the future of NJ farming since only 9% of the state’s population lived in rural areas and most of the population was in urban areas. Through the creation of avenues for access to training and building the capacity of historically marginalized communities, we increased the knowledge of stakeholders and farming entrepreneurship that led to a greener, more prosperous Newark.