This year’s tour includes several sites showcasing some of the District of Columbia’s diverse, urban agriculture initiatives and enterprises, and the expertise, entrepreneurialism, collaboration and partnerships supporting the farms, gardens, and food businesses participants will visit.
DC Councilmember and FARM Policy Committee Vice Chair, Zachary Parker, led the development of the program for this year’s annual farm tour.
ITINERARY: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FARM TOUR
2024 COG FARM POLICY COMMITTEE ANNUAL FARM TOUR
Led by DC Councilmember and FARM Vice Chair, Zachary Parker
8:45 AM:
Arrival and Networking at COG
Kirby Training Center – First Floor
777 North Capitol St NE, Washington, DC 20002
Coffee and light refreshments will be provided.
9:05 to 9:30 AM:
Welcome and Logistics
FARM Chair Jon Stehle
FARM Vice Chair Zachary Parker
FARM Vice Chair Andrew Friedson
Brian V. Guse, Director, Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative
Production, NRCS USDA
Caroline Howe, Food Policy Director, DC Office of Planning
10:00 to 10:55 AM:
Official Kick Off and Tour at Three Part Harmony Farm
3104 4th St NE, Washington, DC 20017
FARM Vice Chair and DC Councilmember Zachary Parker
Gail Taylor, Founder and Owner, Three Part Harmony Farm
Board Member, Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Caucus
Kate Lee, Director, Office of Urban Agriculture, DC Department of Energy and Environment
Supported by D'Real Graham, Kiki Hamilton, Three Part Harmony Farm
11:25 to 12:05 PM:
FoodPrints Tour at The Capitol Hill Cluster School's Watkins Elementary Campus
420 12th St SE, Washington, DC 20003
Charles Allen, DC Council Member and COG Board Chair
Alberto A. Gonzalez, Jr. Senior Policy Advisor, FNS, USDA
Jenn Mampara, Director of Education, FRESHFARM
Regina Green, FoodPrints Instructional Coach, FRESHFARM
12:30 to 1:55 PM:
Lunch and Tour of DC's Lederer Communal Farm and Food Forest
4801 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave NE, Washington, DC 20019
FARM Vice Chair Parker
Joshua Singer, Community Garden Specialist, DC Department of Parks and Recreation
Earl Eutsler, Associate Director for Urban Forestry, DC Department of Transportation
2:15 to 3:00 PM:
Tour of Marion Barry Avenue Market
1303 Marion Barry Ave SE, Washington, DC 20020
FARM Vice Chair Parker
Chris Bradshaw, Founder and Executive Director, Dreaming Out Loud
3:30 PM:
Tour Ends at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
LOGISTICS
- Accessible bathrooms are available at COG, Watkins Elementary Campus, Lederer Communal Farm, and Marion Barry Avenue Market.
- Riding the bus is highly recommended due to unpredictable parking availability at several locations. If you are driving, please review the following guidance:
- Three Part Harmony Farm: Please park on the street and walk across to the gate.
- Watkins Elementary School Campus: 2-hour street parking is generally available nearby.
- Lederer Communal Farm: Street parking on Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE next to the farm.
- Marion Barry Avenue Market: Parking is extremely limited.
TOUR STOPS
Three Part Harmony Farm
https://www.threepartharmonyfarm.com/
Three Part Harmony Farm
FARM Vice Chair and Ward 5 DC Councilmember, Zachary Parker, will provide an official welcome to the District of Columbia and a short orientation to Ward 5.
Three Part Harmony Farm Founder, Gail Taylor, will provide an overview of her farm which also includes land in Prince George's County, and conduct a tour in northeast DC. As time allows, Ms. Taylor will discuss community engagement, DC regulatory changes, funding, partnerships, urban-rural connections, and farming in an era of extreme weather and climate change.
As a Black owned farm with deep roots in DC, the work and responsibility to care for the land and the community is at the core of what Three Part Harmony does.
Kate Lee, Director of the DC Office of Urban Agriculture, will give a short overview of its programs. This includes funding opportunities that farms like Three Part Harmony have successfully applied for and used.
Three Part Harmony Farm grows vegetables, herbs, and flowers using sustainable agriculture methods. Since 2012, the farm has cared for a 2-acre plot of land in Northeast DC owned by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It has 64 permanent 100-foot-long beds (1/2 acre in production) that are managed in a no-till system that prioritizes building soil health and an overall healthy eco-system.
Three Part Harmony Farm is proud of growing high-quality, nutrient-dense produce, most of which is harvested, washed, and distributed within six to 36 hours. Most of it is distributed through the farm’s weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. All CSA distribution sites are located within a bike ride of the farm. Most of the participating families in the CSA live within close proximity of the farm.
In 2022, Three Part Harmony Farm expanded to include new land in Brandywine in neighboring Prince George’s County, Maryland. There, the farm grows row crops requiring more space and raises chickens and eggs. This growth has allowed the farm to strengthen its partnerships with non-profit food hub partners, that distribute produce to communities that the farm does not have the capacity to reach. - Adapted from the farm’s website
FRESHFARM’s FoodPrints Tour at The Capitol Hill Cluster School Watkins Elementary Campus
https://www.freshfarm.org/foodprints
FoodPrints vegetable garden and classroom
Watkins Elementary is a DC public school located in Capitol Hill that provides a challenging and engaging learning environment for first through fifth-grade students.
DC Councilmember and COG Board Chair, Charles Allen, will provide a welcome to Ward 6 and Watkins Elementary School.
Watkins Elementary is where FRESHFARM launched the FoodPrints program in 2009. Participants will meet with Jenn Mampara and Regina Green for an introduction to how FoodPrints integrates joyful food education into 21 public schools spread across Washington, DC. This stop will include a tour of the school’s vegetable garden and teaching kitchen that were constructed as part of this school's modernization - as well as an opportunity to hear from a few student ambassadors who have participated in the program for many years.
At this stop, Alberto A. Gonzalez Jr., a senior Policy Advisor at the US Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, will provide remarks on USDA's school nutrition and meals programs, including farm to school.
FoodPrints Resources:
Apple Beet Carrot (ABC) Salad and Tuscan Kale Salad
FRESHFARM FoodPrints impact report – curriculum highlights, stakeholder feedback, research, and national attention for the program
FRESHFARM FoodPrints: Revolutionizing Food Education - a short video on the FoodPrints program
“Participant Perspectives on the Impact of a School-Based, Experiential Food Education Program Across Childhood, Adolescence and Young Adulthood" - results of a study by George Washington University researchers that demonstrated the FoodPrints program creates lasting impacts in the lives of youth participants
Lederer Communal Farm and Food Forest
https://dpr.dc.gov/page/communal-farms-and-partner-urban-farms
https://trees.dc.gov/pages/food-forests
Example of a DC food forest project
Lederer Gardens is a 50-year-old urban farm located in Ward 7’s Marvin Gaye Park. During Covid-19, the farm was restored and became one of the Department of Parks and Recreation's (DPR) communal production farms, managed by DPR staff and volunteers. The farm welcomes community members to learn, volunteer, and or receive free organic food, including during the farm’s weekly veggie giveaways from May to December. Joshua Singer, the Community Garden Specialist at DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will provide remarks on DPR’s urban agriculture program and a tour of the communal farm.
Participants will also meet Earl Eutsler, Associate Director for Urban Forestry at the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT). He will share information about a food forest project at this location, and some brief remarks about DDOT’s program to build and maintain these in DC.
Virtual Educational Tour of Lederer Gardens, a DPR Communal Farm (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at6L9vmSL7k
Marion Barry Avenue Market
https://dreamingoutloud.org/
https://www.dolgrocery.org/
One of Dreaming Out Loud's farms in DC
Dreaming Out Loud (DOL) Dreaming Out Loud (DOL), Inc is a 501c3 non-profit organization that began as a dream in 2008 and blossomed into a movement. In its beginnings as a youth development organization born out of the need to combat educational and socioeconomic disparities in Washington DC, DOL recognized a foundational issue that impacted the school system and its students gravely. This racial wealth gap also affected entire segments of the population.
Led by founder and executive director, Christopher Bradshaw, DOL did not pivot. Instead, the nonprofit took bold steps aimed at addressing challenges faced by the marginalized communities DOL serves and is a part of. This includes the implementation of innovative programs like the organization’s farms and food hub, DREAM Program, Food is Medicine Program, and Black Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program.
DOL is fervently preparing to launch the Marion Barry Avenue Market in Spring 2025. This marketplace represents the organization’s current expansion and is pivotal to its work to address food access, health inequities, and economic disparities. Attendees will meet with Chris Bradshaw, a local, regional, and national leader in food systems change. They will also have an opportunity to have an early look at the market.
Mr. Bradshaw will discuss DOL’s work across the supply chain, from farming, procuring, processing, aggregating, and distributing food, to providing education and training. DOL works with a network of farmers of color and public, nonprofit, and private partners to achieve its mission of creating economic opportunities for the DC metro region’s marginalized communities through building a healthy, equitable food system.
Dreaming Out Loud Farms
(not part of the tour)
The Farm at Kelly Miller (FKM) is DOL’s 2-acre urban farm in Ward 7’s Lincoln Heights community, located behind Kelly Miller Middle School. Established in 2018, the farm enables the organization to cultivate sustainably grown vegetables, fruits and herbs for its CSA shares, wholesale markets and on-site U-Picks.
The Farm at Fort Stanton is a 1-acre full-production farm and community gathering space in Ward 8. Together with DOL’s partners, this farm will engage both youth, seniors and other community members through regular farming activities.
Both farms boast of youth gardens, community raised beds, composting systems and hoop houses. Realizing the strength and value of its partners, DOL incorporates them into its programming since they are integral to the organization’s success. Joint programming is undertaken with organizations such as City Blossoms, Loop Closing, Rooted and Sustained, and DC Central Kitchen regularly. Overall, holistic programming, events, tours, field trips and volunteer opportunities are realized on land owned by DC’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
RESOURCES
District of Columbia Office of Urban Agriculture at the Department of Energy and Environment
https://doee.dc.gov/urbanag
DC Food Policy Council
https://dcfoodpolicy.org/
University of the District of Columbia, College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Sciences
https://www.udc.edu/causes/
Farming in the Nation's Capital. A look into the history of agriculture in Washington, DC. January 2023. Sadie Cowles, Elisia Bendy, & Yuki Kato.
GIS Story Map
Feeding the City - DC Urban Farms, DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer and DC Food Policy Council, 2021.
GIS Story Map
US Department of Agriculture, Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production
https://www.usda.gov/topics/urban
USDA, Food and Nutrition Service
https://www.fns.usda.gov/