Homeless to hopeful: How urban farming is changing lives in an Iowa shelter

Urban farming has so much potential but it can be hard to make a living doing it. With the economy today, every city and town seems to have more people experiencing homelessness. In Iowa, there is a unique approach connecting individuals utilizing services at Central Iowa Shelter & Services (CISS) to fresh local food in a win-win and a unique farm right downtown.

The facility has been growing vegetables every summer for years but this winter, they opened a greenhouse. Now, some of the people looking for the next steps to housing and employment are spending time planting seeds and growing skills. 

Urban farm manager Aaron Thormodsen and Josh Spain who connects the farm program to culinary efforts at the facility and to restaurants in town sit down with Janice to talk about what the program is seeing, how trainees and local chefs are finding more common ground and more. 

See the greenhouse tour on either our YouTube channel or the Grounded by the Farm website

Learn more about Central Iowa Shelter & Services through:

• The CISS shelter website and the site's Mulberry Farms page
• The Shelter's Facebook Page
• CISS on Instagram

If you would like to support the Mulberry Farms program & planned agrihood, you can donate to the greenhouse program or purchase some things from the farm's Amazon wish list and have it shipped directly! There is also a wish list for the shelter if you'd like to provide some of the items needed there as well.