food security

Boosting urban food security — and with it, farms and nutrition

Cleveland’s Gateway 105 Farmers’ Market is one of more than two dozen farmers markets in and around Cuyahoga County participating in the Produce Perks program. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Cleveland’s Gateway 105 Farmers’ Market is one of more than two dozen farmers markets in and around Cuyahoga County participating in the Produce Perks program. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

A program called Produce Perks is tackling northeast Ohio’s urban food deserts while boosting small farms and food security.

Participating farmers’ markets give two-for-one incentive tokens, or “Produce Perks,” to customers who use an Ohio Direction Card — their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — to buy food. The program provides a dollar-for-dollar match up to $10 for every dollar spent at the market on produce.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition — established by local food leaders, including Ohio State University Extension’s Cuyahoga County office — runs the program.

“Produce Perks has brought many low-income and food-insecure residents to farmers’ markets for the first time,” said Nico Boyd, formerly the community development coordinator in the office and the coalition’s project coordinator. “Not only does it help stretch people’s food dollars to buy more fresh, local produce, it keeps food dollars here.”

“Families can stretch their food dollars by utilizing Produce Perks to double their whole-food purchases,” said Veronica Walton, who manages the Gateway 105 Farmers’ Market in Cleveland for the Famicos Foundation. “The relaxed atmosphere at farmers markets is perfect for conversations about meal preparation, food storage and preservation, all of which decrease food insecurities.”

Essentials

  • Some 55 percent of Clevelanders live in food deserts. People in food deserts have little access to fresh, healthy, affordable food.
  • OSU Extension’s Cuyahoga County office recently expanded Produce Perks to include 30 area farmers markets. A subgrant from Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit targeting food issues, funded the expansion.
  • Another Wholesome Wave subgrant allowed OSU Extension’s Hamilton County office to expand a produce buying incentive program in greater Cincinnati.
  • When the Broadway Farmers’ Market in Cleveland’s Slavic Village joined the Produce Perks program, it saw a 191 percent increase in Ohio Direction Card sales in a single year, according to an article in northeast Ohio’s Fresh Water e-magazine.

Learn more about the Produce Perks program here.

A simple, low-cost way to grow more food

Urban Farms of Central Ohio, part of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, uses high-tunnel technology developed by OARDC scientists to train new farmers and help feed the hungry. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Urban Farms of Central Ohio uses high-tunnel technology developed by OARDC scientists to train new farmers and help feed the hungry. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

High tunnels help farmers grow more food of higher quality, and Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center scientists are working to widen their use.

Especially suited to small and urban farms, the simple, low-cost structures make the growing season longer.

Inside, fruits and vegetables ripen earlier in spring and yield later in fall, with no need for fossil-fuel heat.

“High tunnels translate into greater food production, greater food security and greater potential farm income,” said OARDC scientist Matt Kleinhenz.

At OARDC facilities in Piketon and Wooster and on cooperating farms, Kleinhenz and OARDC colleague Brad Bergefurd are studying high tunnels, documenting their benefits and refining the best ways to use them. Then, they’re sharing their findings with farmers.

“We’ve used OARDC’s high tunnel research to increase our impact by providing high-quality produce for more months of the year,” said Dana Hilfinger, farm manager for Urban Farms of Central Ohio (pictured above, right).

“We’re a nonprofit commercial farming organization providing fresh produce access to food-insecure individuals,” she said. “We’ve been able to market our produce earlier in the season, generating more revenue to support our mission and generally supporting central Ohio’s local food economy,”

Essentials

  • In Ohio, high tunnels can extend the marketing season of a farm from six months to year-round.
  • High tunnels increase a farm’s annual food production. Warm- and cool-season crops are grown and sold in succession. Hundreds to thousands of pounds of more and different kinds of produce are taken from tunnels when outside fields are dormant. That means more revenue to growers and greater choice and health benefits to consumers.
  • Weather extremes disrupt normal farming practices outside, but not so much inside high tunnels. High tunnels protect crops from rain, snow, wind, cold and other stresses, including some pests and disease-causing pathogens. Tunnel production can use less fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides and labor.

Get further details on this research here.

Kale! Kale! The gang’s all here … in an Ohio State greenhouse growing veggies for students

Lesa Holford, right, corporate executive chef with Ohio State University's Student Life Dining Services department, and Courtney George, a sophomore food science major, tend plants they’ve helped grow in a university greenhouse. (Photo: K.D. Chamberlain, CFAES Communications.)

Lesa Holford, right, corporate executive chef with Ohio State University’s Student Life Dining Services department, and Courtney George, a sophomore food science major, tend kale and basil plants in a university greenhouse. (Photo: K.D. Chamberlain, CFAES Communications.)

There’s a new spin to eating on campus.

Ohio State’s Student Life Dining Services department and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences have teamed to grow some of the produce served in the university’s dining halls.

In a greenhouse run by the college’s Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, plant experts from the department, food experts with Dining Services and student volunteers oversee hundreds of robust kale, basil and romaine lettuce plants.

After harvest, the crops go into such dishes as Caesar salads, caprese sandwiches, and kale and bacon tarts (recipe here), all served in campus eateries.

Systems like this one are part of the growing “farm-to-table” movement. Farm-to-table systems aim to shorten the distance as much as possible between where a food is produced and where it’s consumed.

Fresh from the Buckeyes’ backyard

  • Horticulture and Crop Science staff “have taught us so much,” said Lesa Holford, corporate executive chef with Student Life Dining Services. She said she’s more than pleased with the project’s first fruits: more than 230 pounds of greens and herbs in the first three months.
  • Zia Ahmed, senior director of Student Life Dining Services, said, “One day (the project) may lead to a significant amount of production coming out of our own backyard to feed our students. … It’s a great privilege to have the opportunity to grow our own food.”
  • To contact the sources: Lesa Holford at holford.8@osu.edu; Zia Ahmed at ahmed.290@osu.edu.

Read more.

Backed by research, educating farmers on best ways to protect water quality

Adam Sharp’s boots are firmly on the ground when it comes to farming and protecting water: He is also a farmer in Fairfield County.

Adam Sharp’s boots are firmly on the ground when it comes to farming and protecting water: He is also a farmer in Fairfield County.

In summer 2014, Lake Erie and Grand Lake St. Marys, among others, again suffered harmful algal blooms. An ongoing problem in recent years, the blooms are mainly caused by excess phosphorus runoff, including fertilizer and manure from farms. And Ohio State University Extension — teaming with state agencies and Ohio farmers — is delivering crucial science-based educational programs to put new solutions to work.

As a latest example, OSU Extension specialists, tapping into ongoing research by their college, are developing and will provide the fertilizer certification training required by Ohio’s new nutrient management law, Senate Bill 150. Other efforts include teaching nutrient management sessions at Ohio’s yearly Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference, and updating nutrient recommendations — also based on college research — for growers of the state’s major crops.

In these and other programs, “Extension takes the scientific view,” said Greg LaBarge, OSU Extension agronomy field specialist. “We take the emotion out and develop solutions that meet both environmental and economic needs.”

Essentials

  • Harmful algal blooms produce toxins that can sicken people and animals. Beach closings, expensive-to-treat or unsafe drinking water (as happened in summer 2014 in Toledo) and lost tour-ism revenue all can result.
  • The drinking water for more than half the people in Ohio comes from lakes and other surface water at risk from harmful algal blooms.
  • OSU Extension teams up on its water quality efforts with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Ohio Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
  • OSU Extension specialists, for example, taught water-protecting practices to 900 participants — including 400 Certified Crop Advisers responsible for more than 3 million acres — at last year’s Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference. That acreage is equal to nearly a quarter of all the cropland in Ohio.

“Farmers are committed to protecting and improving our waters,” said Adam Sharp, vice president of public policy, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. “But they need help through information-sharing, learning opportunities and education on the latest research and best nutrient management practices.

“OSU Extension is a key partner in providing these valuable services.”

More: go.osu.edu/NutrientStewardship