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Ph.D. Student Leads Camden’s Return to Urban Gardening Roots

Bivona founded the Camden Urban Agriculture Collaborative in 2018 to bring together community organizations and gardeners dedicated to pooling resources, advocating for urban agriculturally friendly policies in Camden, and identifying opportunities to deepen collaboration.

Bivona explains that urban agriculture has the ability to build communities – and foster community resilience – around food.

By Tom McLaughlin
Rutgers University
Apr 12, 2021

Excerpt:

He explains that CUAC received a 2020 USDA Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (UAIP) grant to establish new branches of growth. First and foremost, “garden hubs” are being created throughout the city where residents can acquire tools and supplies, take classes, and learn about gardening first hand.

“The idea is that, if you live in Camden, you would be no more than a 10-minute walk from one of these hubs,” says the Rutgers–Camden doctoral student.

The UAIP grant also establishes an urban agriculture apprenticeship program to elevate gardeners’ growing practices to more intensive levels. Learned skills will include community organizing, financing, and entrepreneurship.

“We don’t want to be too restrictive about how these apprentices might want to use these skills in their career,” says Bivona. “We just want to set them up with the skills and knowledge for the opportunities that most interest them.”

The program will onboard three apprentices in the first year, five in the second year, and seven in the third year. The apprentices will mentor each other as they proceed further into the program.

“It’s the opportunity for them to be the teachers, as well as the learners,” says Bivona.

The grant also establishes a unified outreach and promotions platform, in order to promote the benefits of urban gardening more than ever before.

Bivona explains that urban gardens can serve an obvious economic purpose, creating linkages from local producers to supermarkets, and promoting a “buy local” model in place of imported goods.

“There is a lot of potential to grow food with vacant land that could be utilized,” he says. “If production ramps up, a lot of food can be produced and a large portion of Camden could be fed this way.”

Read the complete article here.