About this project
The Urban Farm Collective began in 2009, educating, growing and sharing food in inner NE Portland, Oregon and exchanging produce exclusively via a barter system. The first year we grew on just one lot; by the next year we'd grown to four sites.
This year, we have been accepted as a project of Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust and have the opportunity to take on five new plots, bringing our total garden space up to more than 1/2 acre.
If we are able to transform these new lots into gardens, this would create something that as far as we know exists nowhere else in the country: a non-profit urban farm, exchanging produce to participants via barter and donating significant amounts of fresh, local produce to the community at large.
Volunteer gardeners and land owners are already on board; all we need is the money to transform the lots. The money will go toward purchasing irrigation systems, tools, greenhouse supplies, path and fence building materials, water catchment systems and harvesting supplies.
FAQ
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Each garden manager harvests the produce at their site on Monday afternoon and delivers it to St. Andrews church where folks who have volunteered their time, water and land can come and exchange their contribution for their share of the harvest. All remaining produce is then donated to the St. Andrews food pantry, serving over 200 low income families per week.
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Absolutely! Each garden is staffed with a volunteer garden manager that has loads of experience and education and they have been tasked with passing along what they have learned to the folks that show up in the gardens. We also have an apprenticeship program where you work side by side with a UFC garden manager from seed starting to cover cropping.
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Perhaps. We are always looking for more land to transform. We ask that it be a minimum of 1,000 square feet with at least 7 hours of sun exposure every day.
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Besides large plots of land in NE Portland, filling our garden management positions poses the most significant challenges to growth. Because we are all volunteers, we only require that garden managers manage one site Therefore each new garden requires a new garden manager. In addition, we promise our working members and apprentices a garden-based education if they chose to come to a UFC work party. Therefore, we can only accept experienced/educated gardeners in the role of garden manager. In this educational model, we depend on experienced gardeners to propel the local food movement forward.
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 29, 2011.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
Donate $10 and receive an Urban Farm Collective tote bag and sticker.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
Donate $25 and receive an Urban Farm Collective t-shirt and sticker.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
Donate $50 and receive a framed photograph capturing the Urban Farm Collective in action, made from reclaimed materials.
Pledge $300 or more Pledge $300 or more
Donate $300 and receive a personal chef in your Portland home. Our local celeb chef will prepare a farm-fresh romantic dinner for two complete with a premium bottle of NW wine.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
Donate $500 and receive all of the above as well as a personal tour of the UFC gardens, barter market and the food pantry it serves.
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The Urban Farm Collective has been serving NE Portland neighbors since 2009. We have made great strides in localizing the food supply, improving access to healthy produce, providing garden-based education and empowering participants with produce self-reliance.
