As cities continue to expand, farmland continues to disappear across America’s landscape. As we lose these farms, we lose the communities that have grown with the land. Seattle is no stranger to this trend, as we can see by looking at the history of Marra Farm and South Park.
The Marra family were Italian truck farmers in the early 1900’s. As the area became more industrialized and the Duwamish River was rechanneled, more and more farmland disappeared. Marra Farm, along with the Picardo P-Patch, is one of the only farms that has been able to survive the changes of the area, making the land an important historical and cultural monument of Seattle.
Today, the farm sits on city parkland, where many groups work together to steward the land. The farm is home to Mien (Loatian) gardeners, a P-Patch garden, chicken cooperative, and many individual community members and families
One member of the Marra Farm Coalition, Solid Ground’s Lettuce Link program, operates a Children’s Garden and a Giving Garden at the farm. Since 1998, Lettuce Link has built community ties and connected neighborhood children to their environment through organic gardening and nutrition classes at the farm. In 2014, volunteers helped grow over 13,400 pounds of organic produce at Marra Farm. In addition to South Park residents growing food for their own families, the food grown at Marra Farm goes to local residents through food banks, meal programs, and children’s classes.
Lettuce Link envisions a city where people have equal access to healthy and culturally appropriate food. They work with and in communities to grow and share food that is fresh and nourishing. Each year, they engage over 400 students in growing and preparing nutritious food. The program also works to get seeds and information to low-income individuals who want to grow their own food, and operates the Seattle Community Farm in Rainier Valley.
Their work would not be possible without tremendous volunteer support! There are a wide variety of opportunities for volunteers, from assisting education coordinators to delivering culturally relevant nutrition and science classes for elementary-aged youth at two urban farms, supporting field trips at the farms, gardening and maintaining green spaces, and distributing seeds at food banks.
Join us to learn more about many different RSVP volunteer opportunities in food and community engagement program areas on Saturday, February 28th from 10AM – Noon at Solid Ground (1501 N 45th St. Seattle 98040). To RSVP for this event contact Jan Hancock at janh@solid-ground.org or call 206.694.6786.
