Growing Community and Cultivating Change

Contributed

This plot of land on 23rd and Parade streets has become known as the Grow and Glow Collective, and the urban farm has been so productive and plentiful, that owner Kristen Weeks is currently looking for more land in the city to expand.

It is difficult to go anywhere lately without hearing a conversation about the rising cost of groceries. With healthier options like fresh produce becoming more expensive and harder to come by, many are returning to the once common practices of gardening, canning, and foraging. Kristen Weeks, owner and operator of Erie's only Black-owned urban farm, Grow and Glow Collective, located at 2304 Parade St., believes that community building through urban farming could be one answer to a myriad of issues facing Erie's most vulnerable populations.

As we sat down to talk during a brunch at Erie's 10/20 Collective, Weeks began the story of how her farm began at the Food Policy and Advisory Council of Erie's first food summit at Edinboro University in 2022. She says she just showed up because of her interests and that she had been looking for land.

"It's very difficult to get land in Erie, and in order to have a community garden you have to have a fence and water and that is like $10,000 right there," she said. "Gretchen Durney of the Sisters of Saint Joseph Neighborhood Network happened to hear me talking about the challenges and called me the next day. She told me they were thinking about using the incubator space within French Street Farms and although I've been farming a long time, it's a farm incubator space that needed to be utilized and so, I was able to get the land," she said.

Through local women listening to and helping to elevate other women, the Grow and Glow Collective Parade Street farm was born and a grant was received to pay for the water. The farm has been so successful, Weeks is currently looking for a larger space that can feed many more people.

"When I started, the land had never been tilled or cultivated at all, so I did it all by hand. I made the beds by hand in a fashion that's very African-centric. I was able to get eight beds done by May then I had to tarp the land and let it sit for a month and so I grew food out of those beds and worked on the back beds because dirt and compost are expensive," said Weeks. Blighted property is often filled with concrete chunks and not the best dirt for farming.

"I'm always thinking about wholeness and community, and when I see empty lots, I start thinking about how we could farm that, we could build a food forest, because if tomorrow all of the grocery stores closed down, 99 percent of us would be screwed and to me that makes no sense," she explained. "I really wanted to keep the food I was growing in that community as much as I could."

Weeks began working with Stephanie Ciner of Wild Field Urban Farm at the "Pay What You Can" markets distributing some of the harvest. She explained that through consistently showing up with food and being available, more people are likely to get curious and try new and different foods. "Through storytelling someone might say, 'oh here's what I do with Brussels sprouts, this is how I like to cook them,' and that may encourage someone to try it. When there is no judgment on food it creates an expansiveness so someone might say, 'okay, I trust this neighbor or this person and so I think I'll try these Brussels sprouts.' It's about getting to know people and showing up consistently in the neighborhood," said Weeks.

When she is not farming, Weeks is still using storytelling in her work for the Erie Center for Arts and Technology, cooking meals after school for the students, educating them on healthy foods, and encouraging them to try different things. "There is so much food in Erie that people don't even know is there, so I'm also really into foraging. We have all these vulnerable communities within our city and learning how to gather these foods, or even creating a task force to gather the apples for example, could make a big difference."

There are many challenges to creating more fresh food. "Erie has no urban agricultural systems or push for sustainable local food in our area, so we don't have growers," said Weeks. "There are three urban farms in Erie; how can that support a market? The family unit is also changing. People aren't eating together or in the same ways."

There is also the ongoing discussion about food deserts. "People on the east side experience more food insecurity, which is also a part of redlining. You can get an apple, a banana, a potato and maybe some tomatoes at the corner store but, that's about it for healthy produce. People consistently shop at Dollar General on the east side and the community is always asking for more places to access food on every survey that's been done. Remember the inaccessibility is not having a car and having to walk everywhere. For many families it's just much quicker to go to Family Dollar."

Kristen Weeks is the proprietor of Erie's first Black-owned urban farm, Grow and Glow Collective at 2304 Parade St. She speaks with Amy VanScoter about getting started, community support, and the power of intentional green spaces in the city. (Contributed photo)

Cultivating more green space is not difficult or expensive to do, according to Weeks. "You can throw some wildflowers on it and start supporting the local pollinators," she said. "There have been so many studies — green spaces have been proven to uplift urban landscapes by shifting the energy within the space. If you put a greenspace in one of the most violent parts of town, what starts happening is the energy starts shifting around that space within a couple of years. The green spaces bring opportunities for people to be on the earth, they bring opportunities to grow food, they provide beauty to the landscape of an impoverished area, and then maybe that also provides inspiration to the people who live in that neighborhood that they are worthy and also have beauty," said Weeks.

At the end of this month, Weeks says she will be starting her seeds. She hopes that by continuing to educate others on the importance of urban agricultural development in Erie, she will also be planting seeds that encourage the growth of new systems around food and community in Erie. "If you want Erie to flourish you need to come back to the community, the roots, and make it a healthy foundation for the people who are at the heart of it."

Erie's Grow and Glow Collective provides local vegan catering, urban farm consulting, foraging and food sovereignty education, and community herbalism. For more information, follow on Instagram @growandglowurbancollective, email eriegrowandglowcollective@gmail.com or reach out by phone at (814) 566-5787

Amy VanScoter works in community development and communications and is a local business owner. She can be reached at avanscoter@gmail.com