Growing Home Co-op : refugee micro-farm cooperative
Date
2008
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Southern New Hampshire University
Abstract
Growing Home is a pilot program designed to create living wage employment for refugees resettled in the area of Trenton, New Jersey. This project in partnership with the County of Burlington, New Jersey (BURLCO) and Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey (LSMNJ) will assist refugees in the development of a worker-owned farm cooperative. The intention of this cooperative is to develop a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture on a ten acre portion of farmland leased to the cooperative by Burlington County Community Agriculture Center which will produce organic vegetables for retail sales. The Cooperative will utilize a unique method of intensive growing called SPIN-Farming (Small Plot Intensive.) The Cooperative will enable refugees who are currently low income due to an inability to obtain living wage employment, become business owners, while fostering a supported work environment. This will be the first worker owned cooperative in the State of New Jersey, the first farm to utilize the SPIN-farm method and the first CSA to be developed on public property in the state. (Author abstract)
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