Alemany Farm

The story of Alemany Farm is about the land, its tenants, and how the changes happened. Different people have worked on the farm at different times, so everyone has a story. Besides the name, the farm is also known by other names such as SLUG Farm and St. Mary's Youth Farm.

The farm is located in an area surrounded by public roads and residential properties. Originally a junkyard, it has a history of transformation. The gardens were redesigned by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG). Then began harvesting avocados, bushes of architect and shrubs. Later on, weeds reclaimed the land after the organization ran out of finance. Several years then, a new volunteer organization (Friends of Alemany) took over the ground and brought it back to shape.

Strategic Plan of the Alemany Farm Project

Friends of Alemany Farm are a volunteer group that manages horticultural projects. The farm also carries out educational programs at the Farm that is about 4 acres in Southeast of the town. The mission of the Alemany Farm is to grow food for security reasons and educate the local inhabitants about becoming individual producers for sustainable development. The project strives towards increasing the knowledge on ecological and habitat value of the plants. The farm also engages in sowing seed for the environment and economic justice.

Alemany farm has our main goals

Alemany Project Farm has the goal of inspiring, educating, and empowering San Franciscans about their potentials. The project fosters environmental education among the residents through introducing both children and adults to their food production techniques. The people are also taught various methods that they can use to grow food in their cities and also leads to a healthy ecosystem. The project aims at maintaining a green garden by increasing vegetable and orchards as they conduct scheduled workdays with the project volunteers (Chris, 1).

The farm also promotes food security through providing their products to the community members. The food given to the community is organic and healthy. The project distributes the outcomes of the garden among the volunteers, and the families subsidized community around the project. The district also subscribes to the free delivery service. Alemany Farm also engages in the outreach of other communities to make their products broadly known. The farm prioritizes in agricultural education since it is an essential element in the sustainability of the urban centers.

The farm also aims to grow leaders through public ethics. It makes leaders by encouraging decision-making skills. Additionally, the farm promotes development by using agriculture to create job skills.

Currently, Alemany Farm is exploring bee biology and habits and is interested in keeping the bees. The farm wants the community to learn beekeeping basics and get to know essential hive equipment. Alemany Farm apiary produces some honey and currently conducts workshops on beekeeping in urban spaces. The farm also encourages the participants to always join their workshops even on regular community workdays.

Project History

Political history

The farm is a four-acre farm shared between two city departments in San Francisco city. One of the departments owns St Mary Park, and the other is concerned with the housing community. The farm is located between and adjacent to these two structures as they al border Alemany Boulevard.

Before 1994, the piece of land where Alemany is located was unattended to; the area was initially used as a dumpsite. Community farming was started by one organization, SLUG paid volunteers, and interns in developing the farm. The farm grew flowers and several crops. The project was initially funded by the College of San Francisco.

Every summer period, fifty to seventy estimated number of youths secured an internship at the farm. The interns were paid wages and worked between twenty to thirty-five hours in a single week. Activities at the farm include preparing the land for farming, construction of the community gardens of the farm tenants, they as well do compost. The interns construct greenhouses, conduct restoration of native habitat, they build fish ponds and beekeeping hives. The farm grows vegetables and flowers for distribution to the subscribers of the farm product. About six to eight interns are assigned the work and are supervised by the staff from SLUG.

After operating for six years, the farm became to sudden demise and was closed after 2000 summer season. It is rumored that the SLUG staff failed to submit the proposal for the subsequent year. The following events were followed by crashing in of the SLUG in 2002 due to financial constraints and involvement in the city politics. After the collapse, the farm failed to operate and was idle although volunteers attended to the trees and also conducted emergency works.

During the start of 2005, groups of volunteers and gardeners were available and showed up on Sundays to do farm maintenance (Dieruf, 2). The volunteers majorly did weeding, pruning, and revitalization. The volunteers grew the fruits and vegetables and distributed to the community. The farm could as well involve the community whenever necessary. Currently, The Alemany Farm Project is being launched by the volunteers and seeks to advance from the backyard of community gardens. The principal aim of the volunteers is to farm in large scale. As a result, the farm has come up with new goals to support the project. Some of the goals include promoting close contact of the urban people with the food sources, growing food for the Alemany community, and organizing people working on the farms.

Social History

SLUG which shut down and ceased tending to the 42 communities and after 20 years, it has again taken route throughout the city. The farm had almost near death experience. SLUG is a city-funded programme that offers several programs to the city dwellers. Some of the activities offered bu the farm includes providing training the troubled persons and starting welfare to the recipients of the jobs offered.

The farm for a period of a long time has acted as a place where little boys from the adjacent housing alternate between playing football and picking fruits. It is on this farm where dozens of volunteers meet every weekend to harvest fruits and squash onions. The park also acts as a recreational center; otherwise, it used to be a dump site (Heather, 1).

Economic history

SLUG’s project on the farm has dropped from $3.5 to a projection of $1.2 million in 2003. The board of t=directors has a goal of raising more than $100,000 in six months. The farm, therefore, hosts schools and groups of tourists and several companies that want their employees enrolled for the community services of Alemany.

The Alemany Farm conducts training for the community members to advance their agriculture skills. According to one of its goals, the farm has been offering food security to the community members who are enrolled in the free delivery service of Alemany Farm products.

Significance of the persons involved

The land was initially a dump site and had a lot of wastes. However, the space was big enough for economic activity. Mayor Jordan and other special speakers were among the first persons to discuss what should be done to such a big piece of land rather than turning into a waste. Mayor Jordan initially plays on the land as a boy. The land was then transformed to being useful by several parties.

Teens helped in transforming the vacant land into an urban farm. The low-income youths were responsible for building the farm. The youths operated and maintained the project all in aiming to beautify the project. There was once greening projects where the teens were trained. The teens were trained since they came from low-income communities and there was a need to gain skills to acquire jobs (Carlina & Walter, 2).

Teen in the farming project was responsible for planting seeds, and they maintain the plants till they are grown. The youths were taught the responsibility of caring for plants. The farm not only provides these youths from low-income communities with employment opportunities but also a daily refuge for the violence. The teens that were also living in lower-income communities also relied more on the recreation centers and public parks; the used these places as educational centers for those who could not afford the cost of education (Carlina & Walter, 3).

The SLUG interns, communities, board members and volunteers as play the role of cleaning part of St Mary Park. The groups as well participated in the filling of debris and clearing nonnative vegetation. The farm got people involved with starting to clean the dirt in the compound. Teens were therefore responsible for completing the preliminary stages of the farm (Christopher, 1). Several other organizations were also involved in the development of the farm. There was a community collaboration between the SLUG, Alemany resident Management Council, and California Native Plant Society. The organizations were responsible for funding the Alemany Farm Project and so realized as a project as an investment security.

According to the youths on Internship at the Alemany farm, their favorite part of the program is making friends with the other teens. The youths learn more about plants and gardening; they as well learn to make and send their own money. The life of the youths in the community is marked by poverty. The low-income houses disappear, and there is increased the cost of living. The success of the neighborhood, therefore, depends on the empowerment of the youths. SLUG, therefore, assist the teens in achieving their financial needs and provide them with educational support (Carlina & Walter, 3).

Challenges and successes of the project

Successes

St Mary’s Farm is a center of training, community garden, and site for jobs. Ecological education and restoration were being conducted at the farm. For so many years, interns and volunteers have harvested arrays of products that benefit the nearby community. The SLUG staff has played an important role in promoting community access (Daniel, 5). The project has led to the construction of several pathways leading to the Alemany Housing community from the farm. Using concrete, SLUG has built concrete structures and pedestrian walkways leading to the entrance of Alemany Boulevard. The crew is currently focusing on retaining the walls and how to boost irrigation during the winter season.

The Alemany Farm has been successful in training interns and equipping them with agricultural knowledge. A team of youths as high as 25 members were sometimes guided through the training thus making them gain skills among other valuable work experiences (Daniel, 5). Additionally, the farm has converted and reclaimed a wasted land by making it productive for agricultural purposes. The land harvests crops such as garlic, potatoes, beans, greens, and lettuce. The farm is also responsible for generating its source of manure for the subsequent use in production.

The farm has envisioned beautiful parks full of native plants, trees, and crops; the form also coexists with the residents on the farm. The future of the land relied on the fact that there was peaceful coexistence between the trees and the community residents (Daniel, 5). The firm, therefore, achieved its goal of becoming innovative and efficient in land use thus preserving ecological equilibrium.

Challenges

The farm was successful in every activity is aimed at. However, it did not fail to face some challenges and barriers towards the achievement of their objectives. The SLUG and its partners had to embrace the slow process of development to lack of finance to fund the arduous process of building the community garden. The SLUG was also looking for a way of building a community garden as a nuisance abatement strategy.

The project was also faced with conflicts and crimes. Despite the community farm focusing on the pilot program of great community gardening, interns and the SLUG staff learned non-violent conflict resolution. During the conflicts, employees of SLUG were hospitalized due to gunshot wounds, three others were clobbered, and a big number were imprisoned due to crime (Joshua, 4). Some parents were as well shot dead. The area was rocked by violence, and the farm gave the teens an avenue to express their concerns about the ongoing violence.

Theoretical Approaches

Alemany Farm helps in addressing food security concerns. All the seasons, the agriculture team concentrates on making fresh produce for local consumption. The products of the farm are delivered to the subscribed communities free of charge. The farmers work towards providing new and fresh fruits and vegetable to the community. Most of the products at St Mary were donated to senior centers for persons with the disability or were distributed to the community.

The success of Alemany farm was contributed by the participation of the communities. Summer was the busiest time when the interns were actively involved in the farm. During the period, booming flowers and vegetables need to be harvested. The farm at times organizes a day where the community members volunteer to plant vegetables and learn about food production. The youths are trained in food production skills to foster sustainable development and food security. The training aims to equip teens, youths, and interns with the skills in food production as a way of enabling food security in the communities. Moreover, the products of the farm are sold at affordable prices.

Works cited

Carlina Williams & Walter Pinnel. Youth Internships: Changing with the seasons.

Alemany Farm. 2000. http://www.alemanyfarm.org/pdf/slug_update_winter_2000.pdf Accessed 16 Oct.

Chris Carlsson. A brief Description of Current Goings. Alemany Farm.

2006. http://www.alemanyfarm.org/history_Carlsson.html Accessed 16 Oct.

Christopher Cook. The Green Link: Jobs and Education. Alemany Farm.

1994 http://www.alemanyfarm.org/pdf/slug_update_spring_94.pdf Accessed 16 Oct. 2017

Daniel Green. Building Community Access, Harvesting Bumper Crops. Alemany Farm.

1996 http://www.alemanyfarm.org/pdf/slug_update_fall_96__1.pdf Accessed 16 Oct. 2017 Accessed 16 Oct. 2017

Dieruf Ed. Narrative history of the Alemany Farm. 2005

Heather Kant. Alemany Farm, 4.5 Productive acres in S.F. SFGATE. July

2019. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/18/BASR18Q5UK.DTL Accessed 16 Oct. 2017

Jenifer Fiskin. Addressing Food Security Needs. Alemany Farm.

2001. http://www.alemanyfarm.org/pdf/slug_update_spring_01 1.pdf Accessed 16 Oct. 2017

Joshua Bloom. Conflict Resolution and Empowerment in SLUG’s Youth Garden

Internship. Alemany Farm. 1995 http://www.alemanyfarm.org/pdf/slug_update_spring_95.pdf Accessed 16 Oct. 2017