Issue 4: March 2025

Welcome to the fourth edition of Kingston’s Food Policy Bites! After a successful 3 month pilot in the last quarter of 2024, we’re back with quarterly editions in 2025.

The City of Kingston’s Department of Health and Wellness is tasked with facilitating policy, systems, and environmental change to benefit the people of Kingston. We know that effective policy is built on transparency and consensus — but also know that policy can be complicated and hard to read. To that end, we want to make the world of food policy more accessible and relevant to our city. That’s why we’ve created Kingston’s Food Policy Bites.

This month we’re asking the question “Does urban agriculture reduce food insecurity?” But first, we need to talk about what urban agriculture is and what it looks like in Kingston.

A Primer on Urban Agriculture

The USDA defines urban agriculture as “the cultivation, processing, and distribution of agricultural products (food or non-food) in urban and suburban areas.”

Urban agriculture has been around for a long time, since at least 3500 BCE when farmers of Mesopotamia set aside plots for farming in their cities. It continued to be found across the globe

throughout the passage of time, including in Persia, Machu Picchu, and the Aztec Civilization. More recent urban agriculture roots can be found in the “allotment gardens” of major European cities like London and Paris during the turn of the 20th century to help the “urban poor,” and in the Victory Gardens of the World Wars. However, the expansion of car culture along with racist zoning policies contributed to “supermarket redlining” during the mid-20th century and the reorganizing of cities, leading to a decline in urban agriculture.

Yet urban agriculture never really disappeared, experiencing the seeds of a renaissance during the 1970s as Black and Latinx urban communities reclaimed vacant lots by establishing community gardens to provide a space for community while feeding people. Detroit is a oft-cited case study of this, from Mayor Coleman Young’s “Farm a Lot” program in the 1970s that sought to transform 3000 empty lots into community gardens to the creation of Keep Growing Detroit in 2013 and the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network (DBCFSN) in 2018, the latter which ensured residents had access to food during the COVID 19 pandemic with a seed sharing and instructional video program.

Today you can find examples of urban agriculture all across the country, including nearby large farms like Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farming and green rooftop business that operates 2 rooftop farms in New York City that span almost 5 acres and produce over 80,000 organically grown vegetables annually, to our very own Kingston YMCA Farm Project, a nonprofit educational farm located in the heart of Midtown.

As our world increasingly urbanizes, we can only anticipate a growth in urban agriculture. In our state alone there are over 1,000 registered or permitted community gardens in cities, according to New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets, so let’s talk about them!

Benefits of Urban Ag

Whether looking at backyard gardens, community gardens, or slightly larger scale farms for production, there are numerous benefits to urban agriculture that could be loosely grouped into themes like environmental impacts, health & wellness, local food economy, and community & culture (see below).

In a quantitative analysis on the social impacts of urban agriculture by CUNY, reported benefits from farmers and gardeners varied depending on the type of farm, which makes sense! A farm that primarily sells their products would rank the economic benefit as the highest just as a community garden might rank social connectedness as a top benefit.

One thing that was interesting was that general wellbeing and social impact benefits were more important than the explicitly nutritional benefits for almost all farms.

Urban Ag in Kingston

Urban agriculture isn’t new to Kingston. Below is a partial timeline of policies and programs over the past 25 years.

Capturing the state of urban agriculture in Kingston is challenging. According to the Grow Well Community Garden Map, there are 15 gardens, including:

• community gardens with private plots or shared labor models
• gardens that give away or sell food
• school gardens
• pollinator gardens (and more!)

There are also numerous organizations supporting urban agriculture in Kingston, such as the Kingston YMCA Farm Project, Kingston Land Trust, The Coop Concept, and more.

Kingston Planning Documents

Urban agriculture (UA) has been incorporated in a number of Kingston planning documents and policies in recent years, including the following.

PLANNING DOCUMENT: Kingston Urban Agriculture Planning & Zoning Study

YEAR: 2014

UA MENTIONS:

This was a targeted assessment of urban agriculture led by the Kingston Urban Agriculture Committee.

One of the goals of this study was to provide recommendations in coordination with the development of the Kingston 2025 Comprehensive Plan and advocate for more urban agriculture-friendly zoning changes, many of which were successful with the City’s updated form-based zoning code adopted in 2023. A Phase 2 was developed in 2017, but never finalized or adopted.

PLANNING DOCUMENT: Kingston 2025 Comprehensive Plan

YEAR: 2016

UA MENTIONS:

Goal 1: Promote a Sustainable Citywide Land Use Policy

Objective 1.3: Promote urban agriculture as a sustainable practice as a part of local and regional food systems change, with a focus on Midtown; – includes allowing agriculture in City parks

Goal 2: Promote maintenance and improvement of existing stable neighborhoods outside the “mixed-use cores;”

Objective 2.5: Promote social interaction through the provision of neighborhood gardens, community gardens, parks and other open spaces;

Goal 3: Preserve constrained lands as open space, agriculture or very low-density residential clustered development as appropriate

Goal 8: Promote a new planned commercial node in Midtown centered around

Education, the Arts, Entertainment and Ethnic Diversity;

Strategy 8.1.2: Acquire vacant lots and blighted properties for public spaces and urban agriculture.

PLANNING DOCUMENT: Kingston Open Space Plan

YEAR: 2019

UA MENTIONS:

“More than 800 acres of land in Kingston are classified as vacant, including 38 acres owned by the City of Kingston. While every effort should be made to promote investment in blighted properties, those properties that are beyond saving and that tend to be located in the most at-need areas of the city should be considered for incorporation into the network of community gardens.” (pg 50)

PLANNING DOCUMENT: Climate Smart Kingston Action Plan 2030

YEAR: 2021

UA MENTIONS:

Strategy Spotlight 20: Increase Local Participation in Community Gardens (pg 69)

PLANNING DOCUMENT: Kingston’s New Form-Based Zoning Code

YEAR: 2023

UA MENTIONS:

Urban agriculture is addressed in Kingston’s updated form-based zoning code under Section 405.21. This permits urban agriculture in nearly all neighborhoods of Kingston. Transect Districts T5-MS (Urban Center- Main Street) and T4-MS (Neighborhood- Main Street) require special permits.

Other specific zoning details are addressed, such as:

• Dimensional standards for structures must comply with the standards of the underlying district
• Urban agriculture shall not be a nuisance or hazard to surrounding neighborhood, and shall be maintained in healthy growing condition
• Rooftop locations are allowable
• Composting allowable, with size and location standards
• Accessory beekeeping allowed with standards and limitations
• Accessory chickens allowed with standards and limitations, such as enclosure and flock specifications

Does Urban Agriculture Reduce Food Insecurity?

So, now that we’ve laid a foundation of what urban agriculture is and what it looks like in Kingston, let’s get back to the question– Does urban agriculture reduce food insecurity?

The results are mixed. While an increase in food security is often touted as a benefit, there is not an extensive amount of evidence to validate this statement. A great place to start is UC Berkley’s systematic review on Does Urban Agriculture Improve Food Security?

What mostly arises in the research is that urban agriculture contributes to a modest increase in food security by providing access to fresh fruits and vegetables, which are typically more unaffordable food items. For example, a literature review from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future found that food insecure people could save between $240-720 per household per year from home or community gardens. This helps to fill a crucial gap in our food system!

However, at the scale that urban agriculture currently operates, there are mixed results on meeting all food needs. One study found that there is simply not enough land to grow food to meet all nutrient requirements, notably vitamins D and B12, which are more available in animal sources of food.

Additionally, as discussed in the Food Policy Bite on tax incentives to increase food retail locations, food access is defined in more ways than just physical access. Just because there is an increase in agriculture nearby does not always guarantee that the harvests will be available, physically, economically or socially, to people who are food insecure. A mapping of urban agriculture in Chicago found that many urban core, low-income census tracts lacked access to community or residential gardens. Another study found that the 68 urban gardens in Phoenix serve less than 9% of “food desert” residents, although there is the opportunity for gardens to theoretically serve more than 96% of the residents.

It could be argued instead that urban agriculture, at the scale it exists currently, can increase food sovereignty. According to the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, “food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” Allowing and promoting urban agriculture gives people more power to define their own food system, even on a small scale.

How Can Cities Use Policy to Support Urban?

Yet, just because urban agriculture doesn’t have evidence of significantly improving food security does not mean it doesn’t have numerous benefits, including food access. Let’s take a look at other cities with a vibrant urban agriculture scene and the policies they’ve adopted to support that.

New York City & Boston

New York City and Boston both have urban agriculture departments (NYC Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture & GrowBoston: Office for Urban Agriculture) that work closely with food policy offices (NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy & Boston’s Office of Food Justice). NYC has a major focus on collecting and measuring data, including the NYC Urban Agriculture Explorer Hub. Boston is focusing on planning and policy, outlined in their 2024 Urban Agriculture Recommendations Report.

Salem, MA

There is plenty of urban agriculture work being done in small cities as well. Take Salem as a city more comparable in size to Kingston than NYC. Salem doesn’t have a separate urban agriculture department, but community agriculture was one of 4 main sections in its 2018 Community Food Assessment. This ultimately led to revisions to Salem’s urban agriculture ordinance and the creation of a municipal farm, Mack Park Farm, a transformed neglected ball field that grows healthy food for the community and is the site of Salem’s first community food forest.

Other Examples

Other examples of ways cities have used zoning and policy to define urban agriculture can be found at the Healthy Food Policy Project.

For example, Washington DC has a law that reduces property taxes by up to 90 percent for the portion of the property that is used as an urban farm.

Or Cleveland, Ohio, which adopted numerous policies, such as its Urban Garden Zoning District which reserves land for gardening and permits the sale of produce, along with its Summer Sprout Program, which offers seasonal access to water for community gardens.

So should cities adopt policies to encourage and support urban agriculture?

Yes! While the evidence is not there (yet) that urban agriculture significantly reduces food insecurity, there are many other benefits of urban agriculture.

Until our food system is able to address the tension between farm security and food security in our economic system, one way to view policies that support and incentivize urban farms might be as a public good for the numerous benefits listed above, rather than requiring that the urban farms operate as a for-profit venture where success is only measured by sales and revenue. This helps communities not to fall into the expectation of the “unattainable trifecta” of urban agriculture, a myth that (without significant, long-term investments) urban agriculture can 1) provide good food to all at affordable prices, 2) provide career opportunities for people typically excluded, AND 3) generate enough income.

A great next step for Kingston will be the its upcoming Food System Plan (to be released for public comment this spring), which will include some recommendations that build on Kingston’s already incredible urban agriculture foundation and our an award-winning, innovative zoning code. Kingston might take inspiration from other cities that have incorporated a food systems lens into their planning processes, prioritizing things like food hubs, required agriculture and/or food retail in development projects, mobile food distributions, and more. The American Planning Association’s Food System resources are a great place to start.

Regardless of the direction, it will be important for Kingston to continue to consider its unique community characteristics such as user needs, desired community impacts, and urban agriculture type to foster a healthy food systems with urban agriculture that is just right for Kingston.

For more information on food & nutrition projects at the City of Kingston, reach out to Kristin Kessler, RDN, CDN, RYT at kkessler@kingston-ny.gov

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Grow Well Garden Steward Cindy Muro hosted “Ask a Plant Doctor” Q & A at the City of Kingston’s annual Earth Fair event held at T.R. Gallo Park on May 11th. First-time gardeners and seasoned growers stopped by to share their successes and mishaps growing herbs, vegetables, and flowers. Cindy offered hope and helpful remedies to concerned gardeners on a variety of subjects, from bug infestations and hungry groundhogs, to cultivating your soil to grow healthy veggies.

In addition to stewarding the community gardens at Barmann Park and George Washington school, Cindy is an avid gardener at home. She donated a variety of seedlings including sorrel, parsley, basil, cucumbers, cucamelons, red cabbage, deer tongue lettuce, kale, and flowering plants which were humbly received by Earth Fair attendees. Curious passersby couldn’t resist the opportunity to learn something new.  Families and their children especially enjoyed the sensory experience of the “toothache plant“, Spilanthes, and made promises to their parents to care for their newly adopted seedlings.

 

South Pine Street City Farm community garden stewards Trish and Joel prepare for a bountiful growing season. In partnership with Ulster YouthBuild, Live Well Kingston’s Grow Well coordinated a sustainability project and community service workday. Led by their construction teachers, Ulster YouthBuild students built a much needed new and improved farm stand. Beginning in June, South Pine Street City Farm will offer a Free Farm Stand on Thursdays from 3:00 – 6:00 pm. Trish explained, “This is a “we-pick” community garden. Tell us what you need, and we can offer it to you”.  

The South Pine Street City Farm is looking for dedicated volunteers. If you have questions, want to grow your own vegetables, or are available to help grow food for the community, please call or text Joel at (845) 399 – 8882. Donations are welcome. 

To learn more about our community gardens, to go Grow Well – Live Well Kingston, Grow Well Community Gardens.

Find free local and online gardening resources at Kingston Library, Holistic Health Community Soil to Soul, Farmer’s Almanac and the 2024 Planting Calendar .

YouthBuild is a holistic comprehensive job training program that provides education, leadership development, community service, and housing construction skills to youth ages 16-24.  As part of their community service, youth met at Pine Street to support the volunteer garden stewards in a variety of tasks for the annual garden fall clean-up. Youth received directions from volunteer garden steward Laurie Berrios, a Kingston resident and member the Grow Well Focus Team.  “Students were curious how a burial ground was built, so we spent some time reviewing the history and then got to work”, said Berrios. Berrios led youth in a variety of tasks which included moving mounds of mulch, repairing broken garden beds, removing invasive plants, removing any dead wood, and moving and preparing soil for its hibernation.

Berrios explained to students the history of the African Burial Grounds. The garden itself, sits in a field separate and adjacent to the sacred burial grounds which were identified by archeologist through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR Scan) and continue to be studied. This sacred site was used as a burial ground for enslaved Africans between the 1700s and mid-1800s. In 2019 it was protected by Harambee and the Kingston Land Trust in collaboration with Scenic Hudson and will be converted into a community memorial site. YouthBuild students keep an active schedule between hands-on learning in the construction trades through projects across the city, and classroom time focused on academics as they prepare for their equivalency exams. The fall clean-up was an experience and learn more about soil, vegetables, plants, and insects. After all, gardens are magical places of continuous hands-on learning. Students even nibbled on some edible plants for the first time and made friends with a few bugs. They also created a space for themselves to rest and reflect which they called the “Friendship Circle”.

This year’s local growing season was impacted by extreme weather conditions. Kingston endured weeks of drought and heavy storms in summer peak months. The July storms caused took down tree limbs, partially destroying the garden’s garage structure. YouthBuild’s helping hands moved contents from the garage into the basement for safe keeping through the winter until the garage can be repaired.

Despite the unpredictable forces of nature any garden is vulnerable to, the Pine Steet Garden produced various flowers including blazing star, butterfly milkweed, cardinal flower. In the periled vegetable beds, okra, green peppers, eggplant, test kale, culinary and medicinal herbs and parsley were harvested. Plant starters were lovingly donated by Moonrise Apothecary and The YFarm, neighbors, board members and volunteers. The Grow Well Team is grateful to Ulster YouthBuild for their support winterizing the gardens at the Pine Street Burial Ground and the work they performed late summer, designing and building a storage shed at the Rondout Community Gardens.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, preparing your garden for its fall clean-up might include removing any diseased plants, add to or start a compost pile, using your fall leaves to creature a nutritious mulch for soil, protecting fruit trees from rodents, crop rotation, test to improve your soils’ PH levels, consider planting garlic before the ground freezes, and remember to remove any garden supports such as cages, stakes, and trellises. For more detailed information, check out the Farmer’s Almanac tips on preparing your garden for winter: 10 Tips for Preparing Your Garden for Winter | The Old Farmer’s Almanac

In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed a National Child Health Day of observance on May 1. In 1960, it was changed to the first Monday in October. While it’s not an official holiday, many schools and hospitals take part in celebrating the day.

“The health of the child is the power of the nation”
Before the 20th century, children were often treated- medicinally, intellectually, and socially- as mini-adults, despite having vastly different needs. It wasn’t even until the mid-1800s that the first children’s hospital was founded. These early hospitals went as far as providing clothing and food to children in need, which significantly reduced the number of children suffering from chronic, preventable medical conditions. The official slogan for National Child Health Day is “the health of the child is the power of the nation,” reflecting that the investment into children’s wellbeing benefits the entire society.

Social Determinants of Health
Health is a complex issue, and being in a state of overall good health isn’t always up to an individual. Many things affect health that are beyond an individual’s control. The “social determinants of health” are the conditions in which we are born, live, work, learn, and play. There are obvious conditions that affect people’s health- like not being able to afford nutrient-dense foods, healthcare, and/or housing due to economic instability (living in poverty).

There are other, less obvious, conditions that affect one’s health and quality of life. Access to quality education and school environments play a huge role in the health of children, starting with early childhood education all the way to higher education. Those who do not finish high school are more likely to develop chronic health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and depression.

Healthy People 2030
Supporting preschool-aged children to be developmentally ready for school and increasing the number of students who are proficient in math and reading are two of the goals of “Healthy People 2030,” a US Department of Health and Human Services framework aimed at improving the health and well-being of all people- read more about that here!

Simply educating and encouraging children to eat healthy and get enough physical activity won’t eliminate health disparities. Instead, it’s important to use strategies that reach entire communities and populations through long-term, sustainable, systems-wide changes. This means, instead of focusing on one-time events, like a health fair, it’s more effective for a school or organization to adopt a policy that changes behavior long term. This could look like a school adopting a policy that provides school breakfast after the bell in the classroom so that more children are able to fuel their bodies at the start of the day.

Other effective ways to encourage equitable health outcomes include changing the way a school system works or its physical environment. The farm-to-school movement connects school districts with locally grown produce and farmers by changing food purchasing practices and providing farming/gardening education in the classroom. This system change could lead to an environmental change of building school gardens. These changes have a lasting impact on the health and wellbeing of not only students, but also their families, teaching staff, and the broader community.

Ways to observe/celebrate

• There are SO many ways you can observe National Child Health Day! If you want to celebrate with big picture thinking, check and see if the important child in your life (child, grandchild, niece/nephew, etc.) has a school wellness committee or PTO that you can join. These committees can help spur systems-wide changes to benefit the health and wellbeing of all children.
• Of course, it isn’t up to you alone to change the system! If you want to celebrate by doing something with the children in your life, consider some of the following:
• Get outside! Go for a walk, play in the park, dig in the dirt, do some yard work (‘tis the season to be raking leaves- or shoveling mulch 😉).
• Cook together! Cooking with kids doesn’t have to be elaborate. Even having a child cut some green onions into a salad using safety scissors, or adding spices to a soup can be a great way to learn about food and cultural traditions.
• Turn off the TV! Have a screen-free evening and try a family board game night instead!
• Take this time to make healthcare appointments! Is your child up to date with their physical? Teeth cleaning? Vaccinations? Here’s your reminder to make sure!

Do you have other special things you like to do to honor your kid’s health? We’d love to hear more! And if a child you love goes to Kingston City School District, you can reach out to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County’s school health coordinator to get more information about joining/starting a school health and wellness committee. Nw293@cornell.edu 845-340-3990 ext.347

They have provided care and improvement to the space. Neighborhood children helped paint the fence a rainbow of colors. New garden and flower beds have been built. Communal resources such as compost and fruit trees have been cared for.

They recently invited the community to a gathering to celebrate the harvest with tomato sandwiches and welcomed the Food Not Bombs group which provided free meals and household items.

Next year they hope to invite in more gardeners, build a toolshed, and make a new entrance and signs.

They have been supported by the Grow Well Focus Team by providing  financial support for the paint, a new hose, and some new tools.  This winter we would like to make plans to support their garden improvement goals. If you would like to get involved, please fill out the survey on the Grow Well page or email Emily.