Phase One Complete: East Point Moves Forward With City Agriculture Plan

Fitzgerald Smith, Jr of East Point Farmers Market, Reynaldo “Brother” Holmes of Soul Spirit Farmers and Tenisio Seanima of Nature’s Candy Farm accept their nominations to the Steering Committee alongside Kim Karris of Food Well Alliance.

Last October, Food Well Alliance launched its biggest and boldest initiative yet: A City Agriculture Plan for every city in metro Atlanta. As our cities become more crowded and more developed, the pressure on our growing spaces increases dramatically. Through our Local Food Baseline Report, we learned that growers were not only being left behind, they were actively being pushed out as green space became harder and harder to come by. Something had to change.

We invited cities to apply to become part of our pilot program to create and implement City Agriculture Plans aimed at supporting growers and protecting growing spaces with Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). In July, 2019, the City of East Point was selected as our pilot city.

Fast forward to December, 2019, and the City of East Point has officially completed the Community Engagement Phase (Phase I), culminating in the selection of three delegates to work in conjunction with the City of East Point and ARC on the Planning Phase (Phase II). In addition, five metro Atlanta cities will receive $10,000 grants to support their city agriculture efforts.

The City Agriculture Plan will do exactly what its name says: bring growers, community leaders, and city officials together - guided by ARC’s planning expertise - to develop city-wide plans that prioritize urban agriculture. The end goal? Thriving community gardens and urban farms providing greater access to locally grown food in East Point, and ultimately across the metro Atlanta region, which translates to healthier people, environments, and communities. 

Seven cities heeded the call, including Alpharetta, Clarkston, East Point, Hapeville, Lawrenceville, Lovejoy and Pine Lake. After a series of local food forums in each city held in February and March -- drawing hundreds of engaged, passionate residents -- East Point was officially selected as the pilot city, and we got to work right away.

In August, we kicked off the Phase I of the plan, which included asset mapping, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, a tour, and a community vote to select three steering committee delegates.

Phase I began with a kick-off event at ArtsXchange by bringing key stakeholders together for the Community Engagement Phase of the plan. The event brought more than 100 East Point residents out to learn more and participate in a Community Asset Mapping exercise led by Taproot Consulting. The exercise guided residents, community leaders and local growers through a process of identifying the local food assets already present in East Point’s four wards. 

Over the next several months, Taproot Consulting continued leading Phase I with a series of focus groups at each of East Point’s four wards, one-on-one interviews, and a bus tour that visited urban farms, markets, local food distributors and composters located in East Point, including: Truly Living Well’s East Point Farm, Soul Spirit Farmers, the East Point Farmers Market, CompostNow and The Common Market Southeast.

Phase I concluded in November, 2019 with Community’s Choice Night hosted by ArtsXchange. During the event, ten growers, community leaders and residents who had applied as candidates for the committee were given the opportunity to pitch why they should be selected. Each person shared their own unique passion and vision for helping to lead the Planning Phase of the City Agriculture Plan. 

Immediately following the candidate’s pitches, attendees voted and the three new Steering Committee members were announced: 

Reynaldo “Brother” Holmes of Soul Spirit Farmers 
Tenisio Seanima of Nature’s Candy Farm 
Fitzgerald Smith, Jr of East Point Farmers Market 

The goal for Phase II is to develop East Point’s specific City Agriculture Plan. Once the plan is approved, Food Well Alliance will grant up to $75,000 to help implement it. 

As the City Agriculture Planning process got underway in East Point, the six other cities that rallied to pilot the program were given a chance to apply for Opportunity Grants. Five of the six applied and will receive funding and support to catalyze their own urban agriculture initiatives: Alpharetta, Clarkston, Hapeville, Lawrenceville, and Pine Lake. We look forward to seeing what takes shape as a result of these grants.

Funding for the City Agriculture Plan pilot has been made possible by The Zeist Foundation and Food Well Alliance founding benefactor, the James M. Cox Foundation.