In September of 2011, Nic announced through his blog ”PhillyRooted” that he would not continue to manage the Walnut Hill Farm that he worked hard to create in the 2009 – 2010 growing season. As painful this separation was for Nic, true to form and to his passion Nic launched “The New Growth Project“.
The vision of the New Growth Project is to help neighborhoods by providing access to nutritious food and economic opportunities that ensure the sustainability of the community. The New Growth Project achieves these goals by:
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Converting blighted vacant lots into urban farms that empower local residents to become active participants in their neighborhood.
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Providing sustainable jobs for young people through our youth internship program,
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Supporting neighboring small scale farmers
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Partnering with the Justice Works program of Mural Arts to create sustainable economic conditions that make urban agriculture viable.
The first project of the New Growth Project is the Master Street farm in Brewerytown. Nic wrote a brief summary of the Master Street farm first season of activity that you will find below and is making a call for donations to support the launch of next year’s growing season. I just used my PayPal account and the whole donation took me 30 seconds to complete. I suggest you do the same.
“2011 went far beyond our expectations at the Master St. Farm. The farm was made possible by a very generous community investment from Marathon Restaurants, as well as a tremendous team effort from Brewerytown neighbors, friends, family, volunteers and members of the Marathon Restaurants to build the farm. The farm has been bountiful and produced many harvests for our affordable weekly on site farm stand, monthly community BBQs, as well as fresh produce that was sold to Marathon Restaurants to raise revenue to fund the project.
We thank Marathon for their continued support, but their initial investment was only the seed money towards positive change in Brewerytown. It’s now up to our board and the farm staff members to become a viable independent non-profit to affect change in the community and the food system. As we move into 2012, we have formally becomewww.newgrowthproject.org
