Cuyahoga County

Legacy cities such as Cleveland, Youngstown, and Akron, Ohio face major challenges in the 21st-century economy, including loss of economic base, aging infrastructure, social polarization, and continued sprawl despite population stabilization. Ohio’s legacy cities have many highly-sought features such as dense, walkable centers, abundant and affordable housing, and infrastructure, and closely-knit communities and skilled workers from their industrial past and immigration history. How can legacy cities leverage these assets to restore their economic vitality while promoting a socially just and sustainable community?

Join The Center for Urban and Regional Analysis on Friday, March 12, 2021, for a special presentation with Charles Marohn the Founder and President of Strong Towns and the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: CURA 

Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Department of Agriculture are partnering to encourage people to plant a fall victory garden. Dubbed Ohio Victory Gardens – Let’s Grow Ohio, the statewide project will be piloted in five Ohio counties this fall: Lucas, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Clark, and Franklin.  The project will include educational programs targeted to fall vegetable gardening throughout Ohio and distribution of free seeds in the five pilot counties. In addition, they are establishing a u.osu.edu/ohiovictorygardens website to gather together  numerous resources around the state focused on vegetable gardening. They are in need of any resources that either you or your county have created (videos, fact sheets, etc.) as well as those you use regularly for vegetable gardening and preservation, etc. See the following list for resource categories:

• Pots and Plots (soils, planning the garden, season extension, container gardens)
• Insects!Diseases!Critters! OH My! (pest management information)
• Buzz about Pollinators (information about pollinators)
• Seeds – Come and Get Them (seed distribution information, pilot testing in six counties in August and all counties in spring)
• Donating Your Victory (food pantries, food banks, etc.)
• Cook ‘N Can It! (What to do with your Victory (preservation, recipes, other)
• Show off the Good, The Bad & The Ugly (people submit photos)

Please contact Associate Professor, Pamela Bennett if you would like to add to the resource list. Follow this link to learn more.

Last month, CURA hosted organizations from the Cleveland area and from the Dayton and Cincinnati areas. The panelists included:

1. Marc White one of the co-Founders and Farm Operations Manager from Rid-All Green Partnership, a local non-profit from the Kinsman Neighborhood located in Cleveland, Ohio. Rid-All Green Partnership is a urban farm that helps educate people living in the area about growing local, healthy food.
2. Michaela Oldfield, Director of Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council, Green Umbrella Regional Sustainability Alliance. Green Umbrella Regional Sustainability Alliance serves as the backbone organization for collective and collaborative impact on creating resilient, sustainable region solutions for all.
3. Nicole Wasmuth, AmeriCorps VISTA and Registered Nurse of Hall Hunger Initiative in Dayton Ohio. Hall Hunger Initiative works with the Dayton, Ohio community partners to create a sustainable and just food system in the Miami Valley area of Ohio.
4. Alan Wight faculty at Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the University of Cincinnati.

The event kicked off with presentations by each of the panelists showing the audience what their organizations do for their local communities and how they support food security:

• Rid-All Green Partnership in the Cleveland, OH area bring education and training to the Kinsman community about urban farming and healthy food habits. They have several green houses, hood houses, and an aquaponics fishery on site.
• Green Umbrella in the Cincinnati area, works within a 10 county area to be the convener of collaboration on food policy and environmental change. Their current projects include: healthy soils, farm to school, healthy eating and healthcare, and zero food to landfills.
• Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the University of Cincinnati presentation was on the food mapping efforts they are involved in, in the Cincinnati community. The maps integrate the beauty of art with the sophistication of geographic science to help people in the Cincinnati community understand where they can find local urban farms and edible food.
• The Hall Hunger Initiative in the Dayton, OH area showed the link between the health system and food system in American and ways to improve upon it.

Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: CURA

Join Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau to spend time with vendors and community partners, an urban farmer panel, an educational presentation, and facilitated networking activities. Come as you are, arrive when you can. The event will be located on the second floor, Fairhill Partners Building in Cleveland. No cost to attend. RSVP to Maggie Rivera at Rivera.482@osu.edu Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: Cuyahoga County Extension & Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation