Growing Good Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program

“They give me everything for growing good,” said Tshitimana about the Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program at Catholic Charities of Louisville, which provides refugees with tools and land to grow food, nutrition and food preservation education, and access to local growers’ markets in Louisville.

The program’s grant expiration date looms in the near future, leaving Catholic Charities with only a year to find new funds. With four urban garden plots, RAPP currently serves 107 grower families from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma, Bhutan, and Burundi. RAPP was founded in 2007 when Catholic Charities was one of 10 recipients nationwide to receive a federal grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This grant was intended to facilitate agricultural opportunities for refugees. The grant, which was renewed in 2010, will last until September of 2013, at which point Catholic Charities will be ineligible to receive it a third time.

One of the markets at which the RAPP participants sell their produce is the Bluegrass Global Growers Market, which takes place on Tuesday nights at Americana Community Center, in partnership with RAPP. During the market, children play on a playground behind the market table, occasionally wandering over to peruse the produce and ask: “Can I eat a tomato?”

According to Alex Udis, community garden coordinator at Americana, the Bluegrass Global Growers Market is the only market in Louisville that seeks to sell food grown by immigrants and refugees to immigrants and refugees.

On Tuesday evenings, traffic picks up after Americana evening classes let out. Lauren Goldberg, RAPP program coordinator, shouts: “Cheap vegetables!”

Tshitimana is one of the most prolific growers at the market. A family came to buy eggplant from his table, joking that it should cost less for the single hole a bug had chewed through its skin.

“You’ll see some haggling here,” said Goldberg.

Tshitimana’s prices are as low as can be, at a dollar for a basket of potatoes or a giant squash, but many refugees and immigrants are unaccustomed to fixed prices. Another thing many refugees are unaccustomed to: a lawn. For many countries outside the U.S., it’s culturally normative to have a personal garden for cooking and consumption, instead of a fruitless patch of green grass.

Many refugees come to America as experienced gardeners and farmers, but lack support to access land, education on how to grow in the Kentucky climate, and a venue to sell their produce.

Tshitimana came to the U.S. in December of 2000 and started gardening in his backyard, then at the Americana Community Center garden, and then at RAPP’s Southside Garden. Last year he calculated that he sold $720 of produce. As of early September of this year, he had made $395.

“I grow everything vegetable,” said Tshitimana. “Because I like to garden. My income is my garden.”

Refugee growers pay a $5-$25 fee for their plots, but they are free to grow and sell as they wish. The fee signifies their commitment to the garden and helps offset water and supply costs. RAPP provides the market opportunities and the refugees take home every dollar they make at the markets.

On a rainy Monday afternoon at the 2.5-acre 7th Street Road garden, a solitary blue umbrella meandered from bean poles to tomato plants. Tankad Adri, a refugee from Bhutan, proudly picked green beans from his small plot on which he also grows okra, tomatoes, and squash.

Adri said he was harvesting for his own dinner table, not for market, as he stuffed beans into a shoulder bag, smiling.

The 7th Street Road garden is the largest of four RAPP gardens and is home to 57 family plots. Other RAPP gardens include locations on West Market Street, Old Preston Highway, and Southside Drive.

Most refugees in the RAPP program grow for personal consumption, but some also produce for sale at farmers’ markets, restaurants, and community supported agriculture distributors like Grasshoppers Distribution and Fresh Stop. Besides the Bluegrass Global Growers Market, RAPP growers sell nearly every day of the week at different markets in town, accepting cash and EBT points.

Rob Adelberg, RAPP farming technical assistance provider, helps refugees sell their food directly to restaurants by walking around Market Street with baskets of fresh food after market days. RAPP has sold produce to Taco Punk, RYE, Harvest Restaurant, Mayan Café, Decca, and others in the neighborhood. They have also sold to or have been supported by Americana Community Center, New Heights Baptist Church, and the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University Cooperative Extensions. The model of selling at market and directly to restaurants aims to provide RAPP growers with supplemental income. According to Goldberg, RAPP has calculated a collective income of $15,658 over five years by its growers who sell their goods at markets and $6,756 thus far in 2012.

Aside from helping provide extra income, RAPP aims to increase local food security for friends, family, and neighbors of its gardeners, estimating that growers share over 3 pounds of produce per week between June and October.

“It’s informal,” said Goldberg. “Everybody in the garden gives away their surplus. Some Burmese women have told me, ‘Food is not for sale – just for sharing.’”

Halima Muya Ali, a refugee from Somalia, has been growing on a RAPP plot for four years, having been introduced to the program through Catholic Charities. Dressed in bright colors from head to toe, she warmly welcomes customers. Goldberg calls her the queen. Her table at the market is as colorful as her garb, brimming with tomatoes. She also sells what is unaffectionately known by many U.S. gardeners as “pigweed,” a stubborn weed that can grow up to 3 inches a day. While we condemn it in the U.S., they cook it in Africa. From June to August, Ali said she eats almost solely from her garden.

“I grow because I like fresh food,” said Ali. “I cannot live without vegetable. My garden in Africa was big.”

In addition to from selling produce, Ali works cleaning a hospital, often prescribing and providing vegetables to her co-workers.

“Anyone comes to me, says, ‘Oh, my stomach hurts. I feel sick. I feel pain,’ I say, ‘Go to the garden!’” said Ali.

As many garden plots rest for the winter, Goldberg said she will be spending a lot of time trying to secure alternative funding.

“Part of the point is to train people so that if we can’t get this funded, they can still access the same options,” said Goldberg.

-Colleen Stewart