About p.e.a.c.h. Community Farms and Gardens

P.e.a.c.h. Community Farms and Gardens are part of the Our Fresh Future for Spokane project of People for Environmental Action and Community Health (p.e.a.c.h.). We produce nutritious, fresh organic produce and make it available at below market cost to the Spokane region’s low-income population.

What is a Community Farm?

It’s a not-for-profit farm that exists for the benefit of the community it serves, grows food for that community and engages the community in various ways. Some of the ways the p.e.a.c.h. Community Farm will engage the community are hosting school children on field trips, providing volunteers from regional agencies and organizations with a rewarding place to work and offering classes in gardening and simple living to the general public.

Will There be More Than One Community Farm?

Yes! P.e.a.c.h. is assembling a “Land Bank” consisting of arable parcels made available by local landowners who are willing to let p.e.a.c.h’s Our Fresh Future project farm their land. Some parcels are just big enough for a garden, others are more farm-sized. Some of these parcels of land could be preserved as farmland forever by becoming part of the p.e.a.c.h. Farmland Trust. As we train new farmers at the p.e.a.c.h. Farm School, we’ll match them with parcels in the Land Bank and viola! More locally grown, fresh, safe food for the community.

What’s This About a Farm School?

The p.e.a.c.h. Community Farm will also be home to the p.e.a.c.h. Farm School. The Farm School will provide farm-based education for enrolled apprentices, some of whom will live on-site, members of the YOUF crew (see below) as well as the community at large. We’ll be teaching small-scale, organic and sustainable farming skills. In addition, the Farm School will host thousands of area school children, high school kids and college students for working field trips. We need more trained farmers to grow more of the food we eat locally and the p.e.a.c.h. Farm School is here to do that training.

Farming is a lot of Work. Who’s Doing it all?

Because our Community Farm is a non-profit agency, a lot of the actual work of building the farm and growing the crops will be done by volunteers. P.e.a.c.h. has an organized corps of volunteers we call the Farm HANDS (which stands for Helpers and Stewards). In 2009, we worked with 630 volunteers on our first Community Farm that was in the Spokane Valley. We’ll need even more folks to work on the new, bigger farm. It’s hard work but it’s truly life-affirming and can even be a lot of fun.

We’ve also got the YOUF crew!

These are our Young Organic Urban Farmers who come from Spokane neighborhoods to work on the Community Farm for paid summer employment. They’ll learn how to grow and harvest the crops and, most important, they’ll be the marketers at our Neighborhood Farm Stands selling what they grow in the neighborhoods they come from.