Becoming an Urban Farmer and Nutrition Educator

I just finished my second co-op with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). I worked at the Green Resource Center at the Norristown Farm Park on a variety of educational and community-based programming, including school field trips, nutrition education, and resources for community gardens.

In the same way that it takes a village for a student to succeed, it takes a village to improve the health of a person, and community, for that matter.

The Green Resource Center is a nonprofit, organic community farm located in Norristown, PA. My primary role was within a PHS-led program called "Food as Medicine," which is a curriculum offered at behavioral health clinics in Norristown and Pottstown. At these clinics, the patients have a dual mental health diagnosis, some sort of physical disability, and have been identified by a practitioner as "food insecure."

In the program, we offered biweekly educational group classes, teaching about gardening, cooking, nutrition, and overall health and wellness. On top of that, we provided fresh produce weekly to the members (supplemented by the farm), as a way to deliver the fresh foods they need but cannot afford. It was just so inspiring and cultivated so many facets of social and community health.

In the same way that it takes a village for a student to succeed, it takes a village to improve the health of a person, and community, for that matter. One aspect of my position has been creating a virtual curriculum for some of the members of one of the behavioral health clinics we were partnered with to view from home. You can view this curriculum online.

Another aspect of my position was supporting the City Harvest program, a Philly-based initiative started by PHS in 2006. There are hundreds of community gardens and small farms in the Greater Philadelphia area, and over 170 of them are partnered with PHS. In exchange for seedlings, seeds, and access to growing resources, gardens commit to donating a portion of their proceeds to a local food pantry. I supported seedling distributions through the 2024 growing season!