You don't need a degree from Case Western Reserve University to solve this equation:
How do you grow food at a far-flung country farm owned by the university, and get it to people in parts of the city where fresh food is hard to find?
The answer can come from any one of us in a new Kickstarter campaign sponsored by the staff of the Farm Food Program at Squire Valleevue Farm in Hunting Valley. If they can raise $32,091 by March 29, they will establish a pilot program for this year giving five farm jobs to people who have difficulty getting to places where fresh produce is sold, or who have difficulty affording it.
Corinne Burr, a farm associate and one of the creators of the campaign, explained recently by phone that while the farm is owned by the university, the food-producing program must raise money for its own projects.
It does that by growing and selling food to the school's dining halls, to customers at its farmers markets, and by offering educational programs led by the staff.
Burr said the farm needed more workers and had an equal desire to offer those jobs to people who needed them the most.
The total raised would give each worker a 20-hour week at $10 an hour and part of the wages would be a $40-value bag of food grown there. Transportation would be provided by a shuttle bus that runs from the CWRU campus in University Circle out to the farm.
The farm program was established with the help of Bon Appetit, the food service at the college. Private donors helped build a greenhouse there, which is used for the four acres of growing space available. There's a section with berry bushes, said Burr, and this year the farm staff will be exploring mushroom growing in the wooded section of the farm.
"We want the farm and the food to be more accessible to people," said Burr, "and there will be teaching at every step of the process."
"We know farming is not for everybody. Sometimes people don't realize the kind of work this is. We want to try to find an applicant who knows what they're getting into and appreciate it. We're looking for people who need this."
Burr can be reached at
216-368-0274
, and the program is explained on the
web site.