Pa. agriculture secretary tours 4 Pittsburgh urban farms

Pennsylvania’s Urban Agriculture Week featured four farms and gardens across Pittsburgh, and Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding toured each on Tuesday as part of his statewide tour.

“At the end of the day, (Urban Agriculture Week) gives us a chance to tell a story about food, about agriculture and sharing that across the state of Pennsylvania,” Redding said at the Hilltop Urban Farm in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair Village.

It was the second stop on the four-garden tour. The first was Garden Dreams in Wilkinsburg, followed by the Hilltop plot, Freeman Family Farms in Manchester, and Sankofa Village Community Garden in Homewood.

“Food production in our urban spaces – from rooftops or vacant lots, to vertical or indoor farming – plays a critical role in advancing food and nutritional security,” Redding said.

Urban farms, he said, also work to address and dismantle “the hold of systemic discrimination that has created cases of the ‘haves and have-nots’ for low-income communities whose residents are predominantly Black and people of color.”

The Hilltop Urban Farm is among the 70 projects in 16 counties statewide that have received funding from the state since Gov. Tom Wolf signed the state’s first Farm Bill in 2019. The bill invested $1 million into an Urban Agriculture Infrastructure Program. The hilltop farm received a $15,000 Urban Agriculture Infrastructure micro-grant in 2019 and one worth $2,500 in 2020.

The money has come from the Pennsylvania Farm Bill’s Urban Agriculture Infrastructure Program – a $1 million investment by the state. The secretary’s Urban Farm Week tour is in its third year, and he noted how the progress during that time.

In October, the city released its latest Feed Pittsburgh report, which looks at the state of food insecurity in the city. The report identified 23 census tracts within the city considered healthy food priority areas – areas that scored particularly high on a scale rating food insecurity. The report notes that of those 23 census tracts, two are made up of mostly college students and 18 are predominantly Black.

St. Clair is among the neighborhoods that contain healthy food priority areas. Others include most of the Hill District and many of the eastern neighborhoods – Homewood, the East Hills, Larimer and Lincoln-Lemington.

Areas in the hilltop surrounding St. Clair Village scored just below the HFPA threshold.

John Bixler, executive director of the farm, said the goal is for the farm to fill some of that void. It already is to an extent, with fresh boxes of food being delivered to families within Arlington Elementary School, which is across the street from the farm.

Other portions of the produce are given to the Brashear Association and similar organizations to distribute to those in need. The farm also offers agricultural education, workforce development opportunities and more.

The farm’s current agreement with the city housing authority, which owns the land, means the farm’s gates cannot be left open for public access, and no sales can take place on the property. The goal for the future is for the Allegheny Land Trust to acquire the land – more than 100 acres – and for the farm to lease the land.

Visions for the future, Bixler said, include community gardens and farmers markets. He said the garden now is “just the tip of the iceberg.”