Be inspired by a neighborhood that is finding ways to innovate, leverage tremendous community resources and assets, and meet local needs through coordinated community projects. Homewood is a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh, home to about 6,000 residents in nine square miles, that has historically been underserved and disinvested—but is home to a wealth of local knowledge, creativity, and resources. We’ll spend the day walking from site to site to meet with a host of incredible community leaders and residents.

The programs that we will learn about support small-scale raised-bed vegetable gardens in backyards and vacant lots, urban farms that take up full city blocks, an outdoor learning lab with hydroponic and aquaponic growing systems developed in partnership between a church and local universities, and more. As is true in many disinvested communities, there is no grocery store in Homewood. We’ll hear from community leaders and an investor working alongside them to transform opportunity and a vision of what’s possible into a new community-led grocery store. Throughout the day, we’ll hear stories of exciting and transformative community-led projects and collaborations, and learn from the stakeholders—community members, funders, and investors, and others—supporting them.

This day-long site visit is offered to participants at the 2019 SAFSF Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Community host organizations include:
• Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers Cooperative of Pittsburgh (BUGS FCP)
• The Oasis Project Farm and Fishery (a project of Bible Center Church)
• Phipps Homegrown Program
• Sankofa Village Community Garden

Additional partners include:
• Bridgeway Capital
• The Heinz Endowments
• ioby