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On a dead-end street in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood, on 18 acres that previously served as an illegal dump, an entire food ecosystem has emerged and thrived under the leadership of local residents.
Green partnership It all started with a single Hoop House built in February 2011. Acres of farmland now support community kitchens and farmers markets. All food waste is turned into compost to support farms and sold throughout Cleveland. Training programs and paid apprenticeships engage community members, and aquaponics and hydroponics systems generate local employment. Specialized programs for veterans and youth have emerged.
“We created a circular economy,” says Rid-All co-founder Keymah Durden, who grew up in the neighborhood. “Little by little, we’ve built this business with things that complement each other.”
(Photo credit: Rid-All Green Partnership)
Darden is one of three co-founders, all childhood friends who grew up on the east side of Cleveland. Rid-All derives its name from late co-founder Damien Forshe’s company, Rid-All Exterminating Corporation, which he operated for 15 years before transitioning to farming. He was inspired by a research paper written by co-founder Randy McShepard that advocated building urban farms on vacant land following the 2009 foreclosure crisis. (Cleveland had one of those Foreclosure rates are among the highest in the country, and many vacant homes are being demolished. )
The trio secured 1.3 acres of vacant land in Kinsman, a region plagued by investment deprivation and deep-seated poverty. They urged counties and others to clean up illegal dumps. Over 2,000 tires, burnt-out cars and abandoned refrigerators have been removed. They attended Urban Farm Growing Power in Milwaukee where he attended a five-month training program that inspired him to do two things. Creating your own soil to replace the contaminated soil on your property and investing in aquaculture. A larger urban farm.
In addition to building hoop houses to start growing plants and vegetables, he collected food waste from local businesses around Cleveland and made and sold compost for his farm. They built a self-supporting hydroponic system that grows fish in tanks and a connected top layer of vegetables. Fish waste strengthens plants, and plants support clean water for fish. In his first three years, in one greenhouse he grew and sold 10,000 tilapia.
(Photo credit: Rid-All Green Partnership)
It was successful enough to secure investment to build a 7,200-square-foot urban farm, which now grows 70,000 tilapia, which Rid-All sells to local restaurants. “His two key elements of our business, the fish farm and the compost, came from learning early on and recognizing that there were markets for both,” he explained McShepard. increase.
As Rid-All grew, the nonprofit secured adjacent land. Now on an 18-acre campus, he has two greenhouses, six hoop houses, a commercial composting station, and a rainwater catchment pond. The nonprofit, which has also been designated an official nursery site for the Cleveland Tree Coalition, will grow and sell at least 5,000 trees over the next few years as part of a larger effort to reforest the city. It’s a schedule.
“We’ve been looking at ways to stay current and evolve over time,” says founding partner Mark White, operations manager. “We wanted to grow a community, not just grow vegetables.”
That’s why Rid-All was introduced. Workshops, training and apprenticeship programs, including specific programs for youth and veterans. The farm currently employs 18 people, many of them from the neighborhood, and offers summer jobs for young people.
Two of the latest developments have strengthened Rid-All’s circular economy model. In the summer of 2020, Rid-All opened a farmers market in the Cleveland-adjacent suburb of Maple Heights. This was the first opportunity for his Rid-All to sell produce on a large scale. “Whatever you grow on the farm can be marketed and any unsold produce can be taken home and composted,” he says McShepard. Once a month, our chefs go to the market to share meals and recipes using ingredients currently on sale.
In the spring of 2021, Rid-All will open a new building on campus that will serve as a community kitchen, marketplace and restaurant facility. Similar to markets, everything grown by Rid-All is cooked and sold in community kitchens, and food waste is composted. “This is a fully closed-loop ecosystem right now,” he says McSheperd.
Darden oversees the community kitchen. “The building is styled like a log cabin, a unique feature in the heart of Cleveland that’s almost a showpiece,” he says. On Tuesdays and Fridays, they sell meals prepared by rotating guest chefs. Kinsman residents often dine with local government officials and professional athletes.
(Photo credit: Rid-All Green Partnership)
Rid-All holds cooking and nutrition classes here and rents out the space for conferences and special events. They also plan to use the kitchen as an incubator for emerging food businesses and as a staging facility for food products that require processing and packaging.
Darden calls farmers markets and community kitchens “game changers.”
“This is a true Cleveland story,” he says. “It’s as local as possible. Growing up on the East Side, her three children embody a sincere and hopeful message about agriculture that shows what’s possible now.”