Urban farm is taking root on once-barren land
Produce from East Side area called the Goonies to aid Food Bank
Bexar County has reclaimed bare land on the East Side once called the Goonies, planning to turn it into verdant acres to be known as the Greenies Urban Farm.
In a few months, fresh broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage will be on kitchen tables across the San Antonio area through food pantries. Those were the vegetables planted this week.
The farm is a collaboration between the Commissioners Court and the Bexar County Texas A&M Agriculture Extension agency. Officials said construction costs were set at $2.1 million.
More than 50 people attended the commemorative planting ceremony Thursday to celebrate the near completion of the first phase of the farm.
With scoops of soil and planting of cool-season vegetables, Bexar officials, agriculture advocates and community leaders celebrated the first phase of the farm that sits on10 acres of undeveloped
land the county acquired in 2016 from the Union Pacific Railroad.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert said the farm has been several years in the making.
“We are here in part because this community was neglected by the powers of this city and this county,” Calvert said. “Today, we open a new era of investment in the notion that all people in Bexar County will be treated with dignity.”
The county will be responsible for the development and maintenance of buildings at the site, which include the newagrilife Extension county office.
The Agriculture Extension team will offer expertise and community education on health and wellness issues.
Debra Dockery Architects designed the urban farm. The master plan includes a farmer’s market, teaching gardens and a 300-person event center.
Under a tent at the edgeof the crops, Dan Curry, director of facilities for the county, introduced guests and thanked county employees, the construction crews and workers involved with the project.
He introduced the Rev. Kenneth Kemp, pastor of
Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, who gave the invocation.
Kemp thanked Calvert, whohe said was determined to reclaim land that was blighted in the neighborhood for many years.
“We pray that its fruitfulness will be to the benefit of those who have persevered,” Kemp said, “through peril, pandemic, poverty and the awful situation of food insecurity.”
The commissioner said
the county will partner with the San Antonio Food Bank to distribute the crop during the pandemic and for the future.
He was followed by Michael Haynes, district extension administrator for the
Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, and Eric Cooper, CEO of the Food Bank.
Haynes said that as he drove to the event through acres of farmland, he thought about bringing that same agriculture to the East Side.
“Today, as we celebrate what is not necessarily the starting line, but a way point,” he said, “something where we can stop and look at how far we’ve come and look at how far we’re going to continue going.”
Cooper said the food bank was honored to be the first recipient of the farm’s harvest. He said the project was a reminder of the need to be more equitable, more diverse and more inclusive.
“As Tommy said whenwe talked about the revitalization of the East Side, it isn’t about gentrification,” Cooper said. “It’s about the electrification — the lighting up — those that endure the hardship should see the spoils of success.”