Urban Farm Festival scheduled for Saturday
CONWAY — The goal of the Urban Farm Festival is to celebrate local food — “growing, cooking and eating it,” said Sandra Leyva, executive director of The Locals, which co-sponsors the festival.
The fifth annual event is planned for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Urban Farm Project, a garden north of the Faulkner County Library, 1900 Tyler St.
The Urban Farm Project is a program of The Locals in partnership with the Faulkner County Library. Although The Locals no longer has a storefront, the community organization hosts pop-up farmers markets and works toward the goal of restaurants and corporations using locally grown food.
Most of the food that is grown in the Urban Farm Project at the library is donated to the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church food pantry, Leyva said.
The event is a potluck, so attendees are asked to bring their favorite dishes to share. Some food will be prepared with ingredients from the garden, and pizza will be donated. Live music will be performed by The Boomers, Buck Bell, The Whole Fam Damily and the Unheardable Kittens, and activities are planned for children.
Kim Doughty of Conway, the new Arkansas GardenCorps service member, will be introduced.
“This is will be our second year participating with Arkansas GardenCorps program,” Leyva said. “Having a full-time service corps member at the garden, it’s just amazing how much more you can accomplish, not just developing and taking care of the garden, but doing outreach.”
The mission of Arkansas GardenCorps, according to its website, is to promote the use of school and community gardens to provide nutrition education with the purpose of reducing childhood obesity and to increase environmental awareness and sustainable agriculture practices in Arkansas communities.
The public is invited to take part in workdays at the garden at 3 p.m. each Sunday. Doughty said community workdays are posted on the Urban Farm Project’s Facebook page and on the greenhouse by the garden.
“Community members are always welcome to walk back there, whether I’m there or not, just to see what we have growing,” Doughty said.
The Garden Club, which meets at 3:30 p.m. Thursdays, is open to children ages 7 and older.
“We always need volunteers,” Leyva said. “We have workdays, hands-on learning and helping at the garden, and we also need volunteers for special events, like this festival.”
The Locals is community-supported, Leyva said, “so we encourage people to make donations so we can keep doing our good work.” Donations can be made on the website www.
thelocals.be or directly to the Urban Farm Project at www. fcurbanfarmproject.org.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.