There have been a million times I have driven past a nasty run down lot in Akron and thought, “We should tear down that yucky house and build a garden here.” Well, the Akron Cooperative is doing just that! I was so excited to find them at the Akron Home and Garden show talking about keeping bees and Urban Chicken raising. They were even holding a raffle to give away a chicken coop (which I entered but did not win). I went to their website to find out more about them and found this:

Our Mission: to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of our community. Our approach is to use the valuable resources and productive traditions within our community by engaging youth and families to improve the conditions of our neighborhoods.

Our Goals: Focus on sustainable agriculture, nutrition education, entrepreneurship, and youth development to create change in our community. With that in mind, our five primary goals are to:

1. Educate residents about food systems, sustainable agriculture and healthy cooking. 

2. Provide access to appropriate and affordable locally-grown, healthy, nutritional and culturally-focused food.

3. Engage and train youth as leaders in the food system and their community.

4. Build self-reliance through employment, training and local business development.

5. Building the capacity to produce food locally through sustainable agriculture. 

How exciting! Find out more, if you are interested in helping out. I don’t know how helpful I can be to them this year with my little kiddos under foot, but next year I would love to put in some man hours in a community garden!  For more information you can follow this link to subscribe to their newsletter.