Photo of the Farm at Walker-Jones last year. Courtesy Farm at Walker-Jones.
In September, David Hilmy was informed that the one-acre farm at the Walker-Jones Education Campus would likely be taken as part of a city redevelopment project. After a relocation promise and months, he says, of no communication, the retired teacher declared the farm was over.
But much like how a garden goes through changes with the seasons, so to will the farm at Walker-Jones. It will now be run by DC Greens, an organization that seeks to connect everyone in the city to healthy food.
The principal of Walker-Jones reached out to Sarah Holway Bernardi, DC Greens co-founder and education director who started the farm in 2012, to see if the organization was interested in running it. Bernardi said she ran the farm until the school could no longer raise funds to keep her on as director, which is when the space became school-managed.
Executive director Lauren Shweder Biel said they’ve already kicked off open work days and will hold a community day on May 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “We’re very excited to reinvigorate the space again,” she said.
Goats — ones raised by humans who are extra cuddly, Bernardi said — will be in attendance to help clear the space.
“Bring your A game,” Bernardi said to potential volunteers. If you can’t make next Sunday, there will be weekly open-volunteer day. “We’re really excited about building a corps of people who can pour their heart into Walker-Jones and help it thrive again,” Biel said.
Late in the planting season, Bernardi said they are working “hard and fast” to prepare the space for a summer planting with cucumbers, tomatoes and squash. By August, they expect to have a farm that’s in full production for the students.
“What we’re really excited about is, over the summer when we’re trying to get the crop up and running, we have plans to open up a farm stand on sight and make sure that what’s growing is being used prior to the kids coming back to school,” Biel said.
The farm under DC Greens. Photo courtesy DC Greens.
Pending funding, DC Greens will host a FoodCorps member to be the school garden coordinator at Walker-Jones. That person will work together with the classes and teachers to ensure that the students are “reaping the benefits” of the adjacent farm, Biel said. This includes in the cafeteria.
The farm will also serve as a training site for D.C. teachers through DC Greens’ garden educator program. “Walker-Jones is just an ideal site to make sure that schools across the city are able to maximize their own garden spaces and receive the necessary training for that,” Biel said.
While there are clearly many great things in store for the farm, it will eventually be taken by the city. Chanda Washington, a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, said in February that it may take one or two years. A relocation process, she said at the time, will include a series of community meetings.
Bernardi said there are existing structures in place, and anything they put in, they’ll be able to move to another space.
“We do have every reason to believe that the city is invested in finding another space,” Biel said. “Every office that we’ve spoken to and that we work with has been very supportive,” Bernadi added. “Everybody, government agencies and nonprofits alike, want to see this space used to its potential for the time its available for the amount of time that it’s available. Everybody is behind the idea of finding an alternate location.”
But even if that doesn’t happen, Bernadi said, they want to focus on what they can do now.
“It’s a Herculean task and it really does take the whole community to embrace it,” Biel said.
