Forty under 40 perspectives: Horticulture for well-being
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) uses horticulture to advance the health and well-being of the Greater Philadelphia region. PHS plays an essential role in the vitality of the Greater Philadelphia community by creating healthier living environments, increasing access to fresh food, growing economic opportunity and building deeper social connections between people. In 2020, PHS built on its mission-driven work and partnered with Montgomery County to develop an initiative to help fight rising food insecurity among residents. This led to the creation of the PHS Green Resource Center at Norristown Farm Park in 2021.
COMMUNITY-FOCUSED AGRICULTURE
The center at Norristown Farm Park comprises a three- acre piece of land that includes a two-acre diversified fruit and vegetable farm, a greenhouse, a historic barn, a wash/pack pavilion with walk-in coolers and a community garden. The farm operation grows produce using sustainable agriculture methods for local food pantries, health clinics and community partners. The largest portion of the produce goes to our “Food as Medicine” program. The center also partners with two mental health clinics in Montgomery County to run Food as Medicine (FAM) programs. Health care providers at the clinics identify patients at risk for food insecurity who have mental and/ or physical health diagnoses that could be aided by better nutrition. These folks are then enrolled in our program, which provides nine months of access to fresh produce from the farm, paired with regular workshops to empower participants with the knowledge of how to cook with these vegetables.
Each clinic has a registered dietitian on staff who leads the workshops along with our PHS educators. Workshops cover the basics of nutrition education, culinary literacy and gardening. At each clinic, we installed a small garden so program participants could learn how to grow fresh produce for themselves as well as experience the benefits of horticulture therapy.
MAXIMIZING OPERATIONS
The day-to-day operations at Norristown Farm Park are different depending on the day, season and the staff. Our staff has four full-time, year-round employees, two of whom are farm-based and two are programming-based. During the growing and programming season, our staff expands to seven with the addition of seasonal employees and summer interns.
Wednesday is the only day that looks the same for everyone on the Farm Park team. For nine months of the year, our Wednesdays are dedicated to harvest/wash/pack days. These are days when we harvest produce grown on the farm, such as tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, etc., wash it and then pack it up to be distributed to all our produce recipient partners.
The other few months, we maintain our Wednesday workdays as a touchstone for our team to come together and recap the previous season and prepare for the upcoming season — whether that is reevaluating and tweaking standard operating procedures (SOPs), executing infrastructure maintenance/improvements or discussing crop plans and program curriculum.
Our programming season lines up almost exactly with the growing season, so both farm staff and programming staff have set schedules during this time. For the programming team, Thursdays and Fridays are spent at our partner health clinics running workshops for the Food as Medicine program. Staff members bring the veggie boxes from the farm and lead two workshops a day (morning and afternoon cohorts) where the participants cook a seasonal recipe using veggies that they’ll be receiving in their boxes.
Depending on the weather and season, the workshops will incorporate time in the on-site garden, usually planting or harvesting. Mondays and Tuesdays are spent preparing for that week’s lessons, including performing garden maintenance at the clinics’ on-site gardens.
For the farm team, every day is a farm workday during the growing season. While we must harvest some crops multiple times a week, what day we complete our other farm tasks depends on many factors — what equipment we have available, weather, staffing and volunteers, etc.
At certain parts of the season, we have volunteer days three times a week. Engagement with volunteers is a vital part of the farm, which provides opportunities for the public to become involved with their local food system and fosters lasting relationships with the community. We are lucky to have dedicated volunteers who come every single week. At this point, many of these volunteers have become extensions of our staff as they know our systems and SOPs and seamlessly fit into our workflow.
GROWING LOCAL OPPORTUNITIES
Outside of Norristown Farm Park, the upcoming fall season will be a busy one across many areas of PHS. To further support community residents interested in gardening and horticulture, PHS has launched a new educational presentation series called Know to Grow, which will cover a wide range of popular gardening topics, including foodscaping, foraging and garden design, to help participants develop green thumbs.
For those seeking in-person experiences this fall, PHS will also be offering tours of PHS Meadowbrook Farm, a historic estate and garden, and the PECO Green Roof. These tours will provide an overview of garden design and history of Meadowbrook Farm, as well as insight into the ecological function of green roofs, featuring skyline views at the PECO Green Roof.
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