Community Growing at Copeland Farm

Community Growing at Copeland Farm
March 1997

A growing community is coming together around Copeland Farm, a community service project that helps provide high-quality nutrition to people who might otherwise have inadequate access to fresh food. Using only safe, organic farming methods, the goal is to serve the needy and at the same time take good care of Planet Earth so that future generations can continue to grow tasty, nutritious crops.

Men and women of all ages--from young children to spry senior citizens--can all find suitable activities at Copeland Farm. Volunteers include people from a broad diversity of cultures, nationalities, religions, educational backgrounds, political orientations, and economic levels.

The combination of outdoor physical work and a friendly social environment makes Copeland Farm an enjoyable experience for just about everyone, and many volunteers come on a regular basis or whenever they have some free time. Some arrive as individuals or with a small group of friends. Sometimes whole families come, with children of all ages.

Often, large organizations such as fraternities, sororities, various student groups from UF and SFCC, and churches send groups to fulfill their community service obligations. Food Not Bombs, a local community organization whose mission is to help feed the hungry and homeless, has undertaken an ongoing commitment to send volunteers to work at Copeland Farm on Saturday mornings.

Spring planting time
March is the month to start planting many of our most popular vegetables: beans, squash, corn, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. It's also the last month to start late cool-season crops such as lettuce, turnips, and collards before summer heat fries their tender green leaves. Potatoes, peas, and turnips are already sprouting.

Right now the winter rye is growing well and plans are underway to open up more space for growing vegetables and planting more cover crops during the Spring and Summer.

Help Copeland Farm grow
Over the last two years, using less than a tenth of our site, Copeland Farm has produced over 4500 pounds of delicious fresh vegetables. We invite you become a Copeland farmhand to help surpass that record in 1997! Come on out and get a little dirt under your fingernails, visit with friends old and new, and help get the spring crops in the ground. Working together, we can feed the community!

Copeland Farm is sponsored by Central Florida Community Action Agency, a local non-profit community service organization that works to assist low-income people in becoming self-sufficient. For more information about volunteering at Copeland Farm, please call project coordinator Myra Bailes at 373-4524.