For too many Omahans, accessing healthy foods is a challenge.
One in eight people and one in seven children in Douglas Country are food insecure, meaning they lack adequate access to healthy foods because of economic and social barriers, according to the Food Bank for the Heartland.
But Omaha community members are working to change this. Whether you’re looking for free, healthy foods, want to learn how to start a garden, need the tools and help to clean up your yard or just want to support your food-growing neighbors — here are some of the many groups cultivating community gardens in your neighborhood.
New American Urban Farmer Program
Organization located at 8502 Mormon Bridge Rd.
Christine Ross was struggling to find the vegetables she loved from back home in South Sudan when she went shopping in Omaha’s grocery stores — and she knew she wasn’t alone. As she saw other refugees and immigrants unable to find food from their home countries, she thought to herself, “why can’t we get our seeds and plant what we know?”
That’s when Ross created the New American Urban Farmer Program to train and empower women who are refugees and new immigrants to the United States in the best practices of agriculture and farm business.
Less than ten women, most of whom are from South Sudan and Myanmar or Burma, come daily to the field, located at the Omaha Home for Boys campus, 8502 Mormon Bridge Rd., to grow and care for more than a dozen crops, many of which couldn’t be found elsewhere in the metro area.
“When we come to the garden we share the workload,” Ross said.
Once the crops are harvested, women take the food home or sell them to customers. Ross has even mailed fresh vegetables to customers in Houston who said they hadn’t seen the crop in the twenty years living in the United States.
Gardening not only brings the women and their communities food they love and miss from their home countries — it can be a therapeutic experience for those still adjusting to life in Omaha.
“Most new Americans when they don’t have things to do, it brings depression, just thinking about life at home and the people they miss,” Ross said. “But this is a place you come, talk with other people and forget about that for a minute.”
With more funding, Ross would be able to pay the women who come and work on the farm each day. She’d also bring conversational English classes to the women — a long-time goal of hers to help the women she works with better advocate for themselves.
To support the New American Urban Farmers Program, call (402) 306 6651 to purchase produce, make a donation to the organization or learn more.
Free Farm Syndicate
Free produce market from 10 a.m. to 12 on Saturdays at 2702 South 10th Street and Sundays at 1123 North 29th Street.
On most early mornings, Kourtney Wismont may be found digging her hands into dirt to unearth fresh produce somewhere in Omaha. She’s one of the cofounders of Free Farm Syndicate, a coalition of open-harvest community gardens across Omaha focused on making food grown in Omaha free and accessible for all.
Every Saturday at 2702 South 10th Street and Sunday at 1123 North 29th Street, the Free Farm Syndicate hosts its Free Farm Stand. From 10 a.m. to noon, volunteers distribute fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers for free to anyone looking to access healthy foods.
The food — which is fresh, locally-grown produce including lettuce, kale, strawberries, peppers, squash — comes from the Free Farm Syndicate’s garden plots and from collaborating gardeners who have extra produce they don’t want to waste. And it’s all free, with no catch.
“Food is a human right, not a privilege,” Wismont said. “Everyone should have access to healthy foods.”
Visit @freefarmsyndicate on Instagram or Facebook, or email grassyndicate@gmail.com for more information on how to get involved.
Omaha Permaculture
Free and reduced price yard services and produce located at 4101 Grant Street.
Photo by Bridget Fogarty
Tucked away in North Omaha at 4101 Grant St. lies eight acres of land that’s home to hundreds of buzzing bees, more than a dozen chickens, a woodworking workshop and gardens and fields of fresh crops fit to feed a village.
This is the new, official headquarters of Omaha Permaculture, an environmental nonprofit that creates healthy ecosystems through urban agriculture on formerly vacant land in neighborhoods. And after three years of fighting to purchase the lot on Grant Street, the organization has found a home to create a year-round community center.
“This property could have gone to developers,” said Gus von Roenn, founder and executive director of Omaha Permaculture, as he looked out at the lot on a sunny Wednesday morning in June. According to von Roenn, the Land Bank board approved Omaha Permaculture’s purchase of the land when soil samples of the property rendered the land “unbuildable to a potential developer.”
“Our objectives here in North Omaha and with this property are to demonstrate what you can do with land that was thrown away and not cared about,” he said. “We’re trying to teach sustainability, we can show how you can revitalize such a property.”
“We will be here for the community in every regard,” von Roenn said.
Resources at the new community center will include a kitchen, cooler, library workshop, all open to the public seven days a week, all year long.
As members of the nonprofit work to winterize the building at their new headquarters, services and resources are still available to the greater Omaha community.
Omaha Permaculture’s main services include helping people with landscaping, gardening and yard maintenance and design needs. Rates are subsidized or free for lower-income clients and full price for more affluent families.
Individuals living near the permaculture gardens or lots can also volunteer and receive portions of each harvest. Students can receive credit while learning permaculture skills through the organization’s internships. Call (402) 689-5509 or email info@omahapermaculture.org for more information.
Big Muddy Urban Farm
Fresh, neighborhood-grown produce, Gifford Park Neighborhood Market, 520 N. 33rd St., every Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. until Sept. 25.
On a vacant lot in the Gifford Park neighborhood, where a house once stood now is home to rows of squash lined up perpendicular to the street below.
Big Muddy Urban Farm plants produce on lots throughout the Gifford Park neighborhood, all of which once had homes on them.
“Instead of the lots lying vacant and harboring unsafe conditions, it’s better to grow healthy food there,” said Brent Lubbert, the program’s executive director.
The Aspiring Farmer Residency is a year-long, service-learning residency program that teaches fellows both the farming and business sides of urban gardening.
Fellows live and work in Gifford Park. Each Friday evening, fellows sell the produce at the Gifford Park Neighborhood Market, 520 N. 33rd St., from 5 to 8 p.m. Residents can sign up for the Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, subscription that guarantees a member a box of fresh produce grown and harvested by Big Muddy Urban Farmers each week.
Anyone can purchase produce at the Gifford Park Neighborhood Market, 520 N. 33rd St., every Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. until Sept. 25. While CSA shares applications are closed for the summer, anyone can visit the Gifford Park Farmers Market to buy produce or discuss possible prorated produce subscription options. From June 3 to Sept. 30, CSA members would receive about $18 worth of naturally grown produce from Big Muddy each week for the full 18-week season. SNAP and EBT benefits are accepted forms of payment.
Email staff at director@bigmuddyurbanfarm.org to learn more about.
Other gardens to know:
The Latino Center of the Midlands
Community members can grow their own gardens through Siembra Salud, a free health education and gardening program. Call (402) 733-2720 or visit the organization website for more information.
Pixan Ixim
The Mayan Community Center Pixan Ixim is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Maya people through community development strategies in Omaha and Nebraska. Located at 4913 S. 25th St., the office is the site of community garden plots. Email Luis Marcos at lmarcos@pixanixim.org for more information.
City Sprouts
City Sprouts is the oldest community garden in the city of Omaha. At the North Education Center and Community Garden, 4002 Seward St., community members are welcome to grab food from the free community fridge, pantry and community garden. The City Sprouts South Omaha community garden is located at 1815 N St. Contact info@omahasprouts.org or (402) 504-1910 for more information.
Have a garden you’d like to see on this list? Contact the reporter at bridget@el-perico.com.
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