Education & Outreach
As our mission states, Sola Gratia Farm is committed to building a community of cooperation and care.
To achieve this, we work to expand access and demand for fresh, healthy food in Champaign-Urbana and to share sustainable food production and preparation skills. Our work particularly aims to supply low-income community members with skills, resources, and support.
Major Initiatives
Farm to School
In July 2020, we began a project to increase access to healthy, local food and agriculture education opportunities in Champaign-Urbana schools. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we worked with Urbana School District 116 and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District to put together a Steering Committee of over 50 school community members and survey an additional 400 on their experiences and opinions of Farm to School programming. From these efforts, we developed a Farm to School Planning Report and Action Plan and have worked with our collaborators to create new garden spaces at several schools and expand Farm to School programming districtwide. In 2022, we supported the school district in hiring a part-time Farm to School Coordinator and creating Garden Coordinator positions for each school garden! We are currently working on increasing access to Farm to School curriculum for teachers. We’re very excited by the direction that this work is going and the impact we are able to have on young people through this project.
For more information about our Farm to School efforts, visit the C-U Farm to School website: www.cufarmtoschool.weebly.com
Solidarity Gardens
We are part of a coalition of local organizations that leads Solidarity Gardens, an initiative that began in 2020 to increase the amount of fresh, high-quality food being produced in Champaign-Urbana by supporting community members in growing food for themselves and their neighbors. We have provided educational and coordination support as well as donating seeds, starts, and other supplies for use in community and private gardens. This project is a collaboration with Cunningham Township, Channing Murray Foundation, Urbana Park District, and other organizations. Over the past three years, we have helped grow and donate over 7,000 pounds of Solidarity Gardens produce!
Events
We host a yearly series of educational and service events, many of them free, to educate interested people on sustainable food preparation and growing practices and to build community around healthy, local food. Events usually include volunteer workdays, communal farm-to-table meals, and cooking classes.
Farm Tours
During the season, we offer farm tours to community, service, and school groups to share the mission and work of our farm with our community. Please fill out this form if you are interested in touring our farm.
Classroom Visits
We aim to educate and empower young people about the regenerative agricultural practices we use and the work we do in the community. We are open to visiting with teachers and classes to share our story and engage kids with some fun, farm-related educational activities.
If you are interested in setting up a classroom visit, contact our Outreach/Education Coordinator, Fiona Munro, at solagratiaoutreach@gmail.com.
Community Gardens
We support and collaborate with multiple local community gardens and school gardens that are addressing the food and nutrition education needs of their local neighborhoods. We believe that in order to most effectively support our community, we must work together to build safe, healthy, and trustworthy food systems. In service of this goal, we donate vegetable starts, assist with visioning and skill-sharing, and boost calls to action from other local growers such as Prosperity Gardens, Lierman Neighborhood Gardens, Randolph Street Gardens, and Mother Carr farm, as well as school gardens at all Urbana schools.
Educational Workshops
We partner with many local organizations, such as First Followers, Habitat for Humanity, and HACC YouthBuild, to support participants of their skill-building and job-training programs by running educational workshops on many aspects of sustainable food production. These workshops help support community members in learning skills that they can use for home food production or in a professional setting.
Job Training Programs
Almost every season, we operate as a work site for at-risk youth from Cunningham Children’s Home, the Champaign READY program, the Care4U Program, and the YES (Youth Employment Service) program. These student workers bring great energy to our team, and we often go on to hire them in other positions once their job training program has ended!