USDA Awards Atlanta Region’s First City Agriculture Plan

East Point Steering Committee meets to discuss the City Agriculture Plan at ArtsXChange in East Point, Ga.

Grant will boost urban agriculture plan for the City of East Point piloted by Food Well Alliance in partnership with the Atlanta Regional Commission

Food Well Alliance (FWA) announced it is one of 23 organizations across the nation – and the only organization in Georgia – receiving a brand-new grant  awarded by the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The new  Regional Food System Partnerships grant program joins the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion  grant programs authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill. The $250,000 grant awarded to FWA will advance implementation of the Atlanta region’s first-ever City Agriculture Plan being piloted in the City of East  Point and guided by FWA and city planning experts from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).  

In 2019, FWA and ARC embarked on a collaborative project to engage local governments in city urban  agriculture planning. While ARC has been an expert regional planner for decades, the project marks the  first dedicated program for urban agriculture planning into ARC’s planning initiatives. FWA and ARC  selected the City of East Point to launch the plan with a goal of illustrating how cities can prioritize urban  agriculture in metro Atlanta. 

“We know City Agriculture Planning has the potential to be a game changer for urban agriculture in the  Atlanta region,” said Food Well Alliance Interim Executive Director Kate Conner. “With this substantial  USDA funding, we can take things to an entirely new level.” According to Conner, the grant will empower  partners to meet key objectives, which include hiring a contract urban agriculture manager, forming a  citizens’ urban agriculture commission, updating zoning and permitting processes, and creating incentives  for growers such as property tax credits. Evaluation of the implementation process will also be an  essential component of the project.  

In May 2020, the draft urban agriculture plan was presented to stakeholders. East Point City Council is  expected to review and approve the final plan next month, at which point implementation can begin. “We  are excited about the new heights that this grant will take us during our implementation of the first-ever  City Agriculture Plan in the metro area,” said Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham. “This funding will help us  form strategic partnerships to systemically and equitably address our food access challenges and, most  importantly, enable us to continue to improve the health and quality of life of our residents.”  

The community engagement phase, led by FWA, included a comprehensive process ensuring community  strengths and local grower priorities were included. Following this phase, ARC completed a six-month  planning process guided by a Steering Committee composed of a diverse set of community-selected and  city-appointed delegates who represent a variety of entities from the local food system and City  government. 

By demonstrating success and evaluating activities during the grant period, the partnership seeks to  expand this work to 54 cities in FWA’s service area covering Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and  Clayton counties. “East Point’s commitment to the East Point City Agriculture Plan will inspire others in  the region and across the country to consider urban agriculture as fundamental to creating communities,”  said Sam Shenbaga, Manager of Community Development at ARC. “I look forward to seeing how this  important grant will help implement the strategies outlined in the Plan.” 

Initial funding for the City Agriculture Plan pilot was made possible by the Zeist Foundation and the  James M. Cox Foundation.