News

Highlights from the 2024 growing season

In 2024, Pi Farm shared 7,723 pounds of produce with our community. 

5,231 pounds were shared with our community partners (68% of our total)

• 3,293 pounds were shared with the food pantry at Intown Cares

• 1,493 pounds were shared with the Urban Recipe Coop at Slater Elementary School

• 384 pounds were shared with the ATL Free Fridge

• 31 pounds were shared with Fleur + Forage Free Herbal Clinic

• 30 pounds were shared with the growers of the Give Back Garden at Metro Transitional Center

2,492 pounds were shared within the Paideia community

• 2,376 pounds were shared via our sliding-scale CSA

• 116 pounds were shared with classes, HS advisories, Pi Cares bags, etc.

Of course this good work is done alongside our amazing student farmers, whose hands-on learning experiences are our number one priority. 

For those keeping track, you'll note that our total number of produce pounds OUT is smaller than in 2023. You'll also remember that I previewed this inevitable outcome each time I was hootin' and hollerin' about how great our new Pi Blooms program (a student-led initiative!) is. 

By shifting some growing spaces (and some time/energy) to making space for Pi Blooms, our food production went down a little bit. This adjustment shows the adaptability and robustness of our program in a way that raw data cannot. Isn't it great how "success" can be defined in so many ways?!

Highlights from the 2023 growing season

In 2023, we shared 9,144.5 pounds of produce from Pi Farm. 

• 2,641.25 pounds went into our sliding-scale CSA

• 62 pounds went to Pi classes, clubs, and special events

• 6,441.25 pounds was shared with the broader community (70% of our total)

  • 3,903.75 pounds went to a weekly food pantry at Intown Cares

  • 1,545 pounds went to a bi-weekly food distribution through an Urban Recipe food coop

  • 953.25 pounds went to a bi-weekly food distribution though ATL Free Fridge

  • 39.25 pounds of medicinal herbs were shared with Fleur + Forage

• Our biggest foe in 2023: the Big Freeze in late December 2022, which decimated most of our overwintering crops including broccoli, carrots, and chard.

Highlights from the 22-23 school year

• We shared 7,863 pounds of produce with our community (in and out of Paideia) in 2022. Most of the food was shared between our CSA, the food pantry at Intown Cares, the Urban Recipe Coop at Slater Elementary School, and the ATL Free Fridge (formerly Free99Fridge). 

• 23 Paideia families are members of our sliding scale CSA, which is offered three seasons a year.

• in the 22-23 school year, 

  • ALL elementary students were a part of Urban Ag. They were planting, harvesting, weeding, composting, etc. on the farm and starting seeds and inoculating logs with mushroom spores on campus.

  • 100+ JH students spent time on the farm as a part of their dedication to community service, to practice math in real life scenarios, and to conduct independent projects

  • 250+ HS students took part in our Urban Ag program through long- and short-term classes, the student-led after school club, sophomore activity day, independent projects, our partnership with a women's transitional center, and more.

• Farmers (including student farmers) spread more than 10 cubic yards of compost on our 2 acre farm in 2022

• 5862 plants were grown in the Paideia Greenhouse in the spring of 2023; most started by students, many potted up by students!

  • 2149 plants stayed on Paideia Farm, most planted by students.

  • 352 plants were for campus, including native perennials for our new partnership with Shades of Green Permaculture

  • the rest were shared with our community, including partner organizations like Browns Mill Food Forest, Campbellton Community Garden, Language Garden Preschool, Fleur + Forage, Global Growers, Atlanta History Center's Goizueta Gardens, Give Back Garden at Metro Transitional Center, Price Middle School Farm, Westside Atlanta Charter School Farm, and Trellis Horticultural Therapy. 

News from October 5, 2022

Erin, Cassie and I have been working hard to meet all of our goals in the late summer/early fall season. We have had nine elementary classes, one Junior High class, and three high school classes visit so far, with many of these coming out more than once! We are excited that plenty more new and returning classes are on the docket for October and beyond. Planting, weeding, harvesting, turning compost, smelling and tasting different herbs, prepping beds for fall crops, and singing songs about honeybees... these are just a few things you can find us doing with students day-to-day. We couldn't do it without the support of our incredible faculty and are so grateful for those who make time to bring students to the farm. 

While focused on creating engaging experiences for students, we are also working hard to share delicious and nutritious produce with our neighbors. We continue to collaborate with our partner farms (at Purpose Built Schools of Atlanta and Metro Transitional Center), sharing resources and knowledge, providing mentorship, and aggregating our produce.

Together, our produce supports several food security initiatives, including the Paideia Sliding-Scale CSA, the Slater Elementary Food Co-op (operated by Urban Recipe), Intown Collaborative Ministries' food pantry, Free99Fridge locations, and a Fresh Food Box program for MTC growers newly freed from the prison system.

We are working hard to negotiate with the deer in 2022 and still have delicious and nutritious produce to share. It is no easy task -- these creatures are ravenous and it is heartbreaking to see just how much they can devour in one night. Still, we have some to share each week. Here are the numbers so far:

• In Q1 of 2022, Pi Farm along with our partner farms grew 700 pounds of produce for our community.

• In Q2, we shared over 2,500 pounds

• In Q3, we shared over 2,300 pounds

Here are a few highlights from Paideia Farm in the first six weeks of school:

• Our fall season of the sliding scale CSA program kicked off this past Thursday. 22 Paideia families are participating this season after an amazing amount of interest forms (53!) were submitted. As always, between 40-50% of the participants are participating at the $5 level, made possible by the generosity of those who have a little more to spare. We are excited to share our abundance and highlight the work of growers and makers around the city who are people of color. Cassie is now our CSA Manager (in addition to Farm Assistant) and is doing a fantastic job. 

• One of the products we will offer in this season's CSA is a Paideia Healing Salve by Lavender Sunshine Co! This incredible salve was custom-made by our own Jillian Eugene (in the elementary) using calendula, lavender, rosemary, anise hyssop, and sage grown on Paideia Farm and harvested by high school apprentices and interns this summer.

• Our summer apprentices and interns on the farm harvested so much calendula that there was enough to share more than a pound of dehydrated blossoms with the Fleur + Forage Free Clinic (formerly known as the Herbalista Free Clinic). In September, Marie-Lies Van Asten, the herbalist who owns and operates Fleur + Forage, did a plant walk with my high school Urban Ag class on Pi Farm followed by a calendula oil infusion lesson using our calendula. She then pressed the oil and used it in a community medicine making class on October 1st where they turned it into a salve to be passed out during the free clinic on October 27th. We are proud to be partners with Fleur + Forage and help nourish our neighbors in this unique way.

• Much of the "seconds" produce (the ugly stuff) that comes off the farm is, if it can be, processed in a way that it can be frozen for future use by classes, clubs, or individual projects. We are doing our darndest to limit food waste! The high school Urban Ag class doing some cooking challenges this year in the MAC kitchen using these seconds. We made some refrigerator pickles in September that we shared with the growers at MTC during our first weekend workshop and they were a huge hit! Most recently we were back in the kitchen making strawberry ice cream. YUM.

• High school junior Catherine Dwyer is doing a big preservation project with much of the frozen produce we have as well as some chestnuts that came from a previous site of the Paideia Urban Ag program. She's working with students of all ages, and just this last week had Dan & Chupzi's class processing chestnuts from a former Pi Farm site! I can't wait for you all to learn more about Catherine's project - she's spearheading an incredible cross-age endeavor to share with the broader community and we are delighted to support her creative use of "seconds" farm produce.

• In another magical moment of cross-age collaboration, this past Thursday we had 20 high school students from Brian's Medical Botany class and 13 students from Steff & Neda's class (with Isabelle) on the farm at the same time. These students buddied up and spent half of their time harvesting ginger and the other half planting onion seeds together. The high school students were so patient and kind to the elementary students, and the younger ones were very excited to accomplish some exciting farm tasks with their older buddies. It was quite impactful for all involved! Brian, Isabelle, and I agreed that it captured what Paideia is all about. You can see photos from that morning here.

This is of course not an exhaustive list of all the cool things happening on and around the farm! Thank you so much for all of your support in my first six months here at Paideia. I am still getting my sea legs, but it is great to celebrate these accomplishments with all of you. Can't wait for all that lies ahead.

With gratitude,

Emily