Cultivating a community: North Hill farming co-op wins Gannett Foundation national grant
The Akron Cooperative Farms complex is nestled in the North Hill neighborhood, a diverse community where refugees and immigrants from across the globe come to seek shelter, acceptance and safety from persecution. An area that formerly served as Patterson Park's baseball fields is now a 4.5-acre plot where community members can farm, share their crops with others and develop a sense of community belonging.
The organization is receiving an extra boost to support those goals as one of 16 grant recipients nationwide in the Gannett Foundation's A Community Thrives program.
The $25,000 grant will support the completion of a market pavilion to provide shelter for farmers during inclement weather as well as a space for community education programming. Renovations include the completion of electrical work, installation of a new pizza oven, siding, wash stations and extension of the front porch to provide more shade for vendors.
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Currently, more than 120 farmers tend over 140 plots at Akron's largest community garden, at 743 Gaylan Drive. The majority of the farmers come from the Nepalese, Myanmar and Congolese communities that populate the surrounding North Hill neighborhood.
"I had been previously involved with the refugee community here in North Hill, and I wanted to give hope and a sense of purpose to those immigrants and refugees who came to Akron and were having difficulty adjusting," said Douglas Wurtz, executive director and founder of Akron Cooperative Farms.
"While we may occasionally have some language barriers that we have to navigate, the love and passion for gardening that we share is universal and goes beyond traditional spoken language," Wurtz said.
Akron Cooperative Farms, which first began allowing the purchase and utilization of plots in 2019, partnered with ASIA Inc. (Asian Services in Akron) to host an annual farmers market in the summer months, and is also associated with other Akron organizations such as Akron Public Schools.
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"The partnerships we've developed with other community organizations and institutions have been incredibly valuable to those refugees and community members who want a shared and safe space; we have a great relationship with the city of Akron and these relationships ultimately allow us the ability to add more amenities to the farms, which we hope will better serve the public," Wurtz said.
More than 760 organizations from across 45 states submitted applications for this year's A Community Thrives grants.
Winners of the national project grants received amounts ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. Akron Cooperative Farms was one of two Ohio organizations selected; OpenDoor-Columbus, a women's addiction recovery center in Columbus, also was chosen.
"We're so excited to be able to receive this grant from the Gannett Foundation and use these funds towards having a fully functioning pavilion," Wurtz said. "We'd really like to expand what we do here in bringing in different community groups and being able to have functions here and this grant helps us to accomplish this."
"We are proud of the work Akron Cooperative Farms has done to enhance life in Akron, Ohio. At Gannett, we take pride in supporting the organizations that make a positive impact in their communities. Through A Community Thrives, we lend financial support to that purpose as well as rally the whole community to champion a good and meaningful cause,” Gannett CEO and Chairman Mike Reed said in a news release.
More than $6 million was awarded through this year's A Community Thrives program, with $800,000 in national project grants, $1.3 million in local operating grants and $200,000 in fundraising incentive grants. An additional crowdfunding effort raised $3.7 million for the program to allocate.
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The grant-making and crowdfunding program, supported by the Gannett Foundation and the USA TODAY NETWORK, which the Akron Beacon Journal is a part of, has been issuing grants to national nonprofit organizations since 2017. Since that time, more than $23 million has been awarded.
For a complete list of the 2022 A Community Thrives program grant recipients, please visit www.gannettfoundation.org/act/
Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Cooperative Farms named one of 16 Gannett grant winners
