Heru Urban Farming wants to make fresh produce more equitable in St. Louis
He wants to open up farmland to retreats and teach people about growing food.
By Kasey Carlson
Feast
Dec 14, 2020
Excerpts:
He was thinking about this all when he came up with the idea to turn three vacant lots near his house into a garden to grow food. He began leasing the land to originally grow food for his own family when others from the neighborhood kept asking him questions about the food he was growing. That was in 2017, marking the beginnings of Heru Urban Farming, through which Lewis has brought fresh produce to those who need it the most.
Neglected communities on St. Louis’ north side don’t have access to the kind of food Lewis is growing, but according to him, there’s a thousand gas stations and a Family Dollar on every corner as opposed to actual grocery stores.
After a lot of work both on the ground and in grant writing, Heru Urban Farming now has 3 acres on which Lewis is growing fresh produce for local businesses and those in his community, including two and a half acres that he’s renting from David Bohlen of Bohlen Family Farms in Bellafontaine.
