Teaching Sustainability Community Building: -Hayes Valley Farm; San Francisco, CA
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The Hayes Valley Farm transformed a former freeway ramp into a flourishing garden. The urban farming experiment explores strategies for maintaining sustainable, organic agriculture, upcycling waste, and fostering community interaction and education. The founders wanted to educate the urban population on the rural activities of planting and growing food, teach them skills, and give people firsthand experiences growing food and plants. The farm thrives on community involvement by offering educational classes, workshops, work days, camps, nature hikes, yoga classes, familyoriented events, and internships for people to learn more and get invested in the project. They offer classes with a work-trade agreement, where people can attend a three hour class for free if they perform three hours of service to help maintain the gardens. The farm features 45,000 square feet of gardens, 150 fruit trees, a nursery, a seed-sharing library, a greenhouse, and honeyproducing bees. Hayes Valley also has a SolarPump Charging Station, which offers a bus-stop-sized station covered in photovoltaic panels to give users free solar power to recharge their devices (electric bicycles, cellphones, laptops, etc.) (Hayes Valley Farm, 2011). The farm is constantly growing and expanding its operations and adding innovative strategies for urban sustainability.