My Carolina TV Interview: Raleigh City Farm Brings Community Together Through Agriculture
The Raleigh City Farm Team headed to the studio this week! Lisa Grele Barrie, Executive Director, and Maria Williford, Farm Manager, met with My Carolina to discuss affordable regenerative agriculture.
We brought the flowers, discussed fresh vegetables, talked about food insecurity, and more. Watch the full video below or on the My Carolina website here.
Conversation from the video interview
My Carolina:
We're really excited because it was the official kickoff of summer Memorial Day weekend. A lot of people are ready to get in gardening if they haven't already planted whatever they need to plant; I'm not the expert. Luckily, we have some experts that are going to help us today.
Flowers are in bloom. Food, vegetables, herbs, all of it. And guess what? You can get it for what you can afford. Food insecurity is a problem many people face living in inner cities. Raleigh City Farm works every single day to provide fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables to our local communities at prices everyone can deal with.
With us today, we have executive director Lisa Grele Barrie and farm manager Maria Williford. Thank you both for being here. So, so happy to talk with you. Such a pleasure.
Raleigh City Farm:
Thanks for having us.
My Carolina:
This is the coolest concept because I think so many people would love to have a garden in their backyard. But when you live in the city, it's not always possible. We know food prices and stores are super, super expensive right now. So you merge both together and help everyone out. Tell us about the farm.
Raleigh City Farm:
All right. So I'll just say that 12 years ago, we were a vacant lot and the founders vision was creating a farm in an urban area. Most farms are in the country, so we wanted to bring in food and a focus on food and local eating to our our inner city community.
So we are 12 years in with a beautiful 1.3 acre site full of beautiful produce, flowers, herbs, all kinds of plants. One beautiful site.
My Carolina:
I think something in the middle of the city kind of gives us more of that oxygen, and plants make people feel happy.
Raleigh City Farm:
Absolutely. I just know just how much people really love how central we are to downtown Raleigh and just being able to walk through the site and just have that moment of rest and connection to nature and really enjoying the beauty of what we have to offer.
My Carolina:
And it's not only zen that you provide, you also provide food. How does that work?
Raleigh City Farm:
We farm in the field and then we have two structures that we also farm in. And I'm really proud to say that since 2020, we've really been ramping up how much we're producing every year.
And just last year, we almost produced about 12,000 pounds of food.
My Carolina:
Wow. So putting that into kind of perspective, I can't even picture that because I seem like a pile of vegetables there. How many meals is that kind of approximately, or how many people would that feed? I know I'm not putting you on the spot right now.
Raleigh City Farm:
It's about 8000 meals.
My Carolina:
Wow. Okay. That's a lot! So you are here for our community because you are a nonprofit and it's a pay-as-you-can.
Raleigh City Farm:
We have two channels of distribution. So all year long, we're sharing our produce through our farm share program with our nonprofit partners: A Place at the Table, Interfaith Food Shuttle, the Food Bank, all those great folks who are helping feed our community.
And we have a seasonal Pay-What-You-Can Farmstand funded by Bank of America, so that those folks who are able to pay the suggested price can do that or they can pay what they can. And often we just we give produce away for free. We also do a little portable stand at the Salvation Army. So again, all this beautiful, fresh, nutrient dense food is is is getting to the people who need it the most.
My Carolina:
I love that. And you're also, I think, giving people a sense of pride that they can go out and buy their own food and not to feel bad about whatever they can offer because it's for everyone to do that. It's it's putting us all on the same page. And if not, it's going to go bad, right?
Raleigh City Farm:
Right. Well, it certainly we don't want to waste food. About 30 to 40% of our food is wasted at most farms. So we're really trying to tackle hunger and and manage waste and be responsible stewards of the land.
My Carolina:
And it's not just fruits and vegetables that you're growing. You're also doing flowers. You brought a beautiful bouquet right here. The flowers are so intricate and pretty. Those are available at your stands as well.
Raleigh City Farm:
Yes. We harvest flowers every Wednesday. And so we've got all kinds of very affordable bouquets. If you see this flower bouquet has herbs as well. So we've got some oregano and rosemary and lavender. And so aromatherapy is another great way to lift our spirits and make us feel better as well as the beauty of a bouquet.
My Carolina:
That's where that smell is coming from! I didn't realize they were herbs in there, but it is so fragrant. Yes, we need some aroma therapy. Thank you for that.
Now the stand is about to kind of kick up and go, Where can we find you?
Raleigh City Farm:
We did open {the farm stand} in mid April. And we're at the corner of Franklin and Blond next to the Person Street Plaza.
And our Pay-What-You-Can Farmstand is open every Wednesday from 4 to 7pm. Every Wednesday, rain or shine.
My Carolina:
I know you are open, but I say kick off because I always just feel like as summer hits in, that's when everybody starts to think produce in season right now.
Raleigh City Farm:
We actually still have our spring crops and so we still have some kale, carrots, beets, green onions and a little bit of lettuce left too.
And then we've just planted a lot of our summer stuff. So things to look forward to would be like tomatoes, eggplant, okra, squashes, things like that. Peppers, peppers, lots of peppers!
My Carolina:
This is such a great concept and I know we didn't even touch on it, but volunteer opportunities, right?
Raleigh City Farm:
There are so many ways that the community can volunteer with us.
We have weekly workdays every Friday for private groups. We have a Saturday work days, we have Wednesday workdays from 6 to 7. We call them workdays, but they're just an hour. Then we offer tours. There are programs, there are events, there are workshops. So many ways for the folks to dig in. And all of this is on our website in the events section.
My Carolina:
This is such an amazing concept and we're so lucky to have this right here in Raleigh because we're just helping out in so many different ways. I mean, helping the environment with the oxygen, giving people some Zen with aromatherapy and being able to walk through there, helping people eat, helping people. And where can we find more information?
Raleigh City Farm:
Our website has a lot of information on it. We're on social channels, so you can check out us on Instagram and all the wonderful social channels.
My Carolina:
Amazing. We're going to have to get out there! And I'm sure you're going to have to help us learn how to plant some of these things.
Raleigh City Farm:
It is my passion, I would love to!
My Carolina:
A green thumb! We appreciate you. We're going to keep these flowers here and enjoy them all week long. Thank you for being here and thank you for everything you do.