Success StoryJefferson County Cooperative Extension Spreads Urban Agricultural Education through Community Event



Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Spreads Urban Agricultural Education through Community Event

Author: Bethany Pratt

Planning Unit: Family and Consumer Sciences

Major Program: Home & Consumer Horticulture

Plan of Work: Promoting Sustainable Agriculture, Natural Resources and Urban Forestry

Outcome: Intermediate Outcome

In order to increase awareness about urban agriculture in Louisville, the Louisville Urban Agricultural Coalition sponsored the Garden tents at the Louisville Free Public Library’s How-To Festival, a free public education event where people can come to attend 30 minute “TED”-style talks or activities.

The Louisville Urban Agriculture Coalition (UAC) was formed in 2017 by the Horticulture agent, Jefferson County Soil & Water Conservation District, Louisville Grows, Lots of Food; Common Earth Gardens, Americana World Community Center, The Food Literacy Project and interested citizens to provide a collaborate and communicative working group for all organizations in the city that focus on Urban Agriculture. As an effort to solidify the partnership, the group set the task of hosting an urban agricultural education event in 2018. Eventually, we decided to connect with the Louisville Public Library’s How-To Festival, as something of very similar format to what we were brainstorming and an event that each group had participated in independently in the past.

To bolster the Gardening portion of the How-To Festival, the UAC identified expert speakers from the community to provide a total of 6 hours of educational instruction around topics related to urban agriculture and sustainable living. The UAC also hosted a Seed Swap and information tent about the UAC and the organizations involved in the coalition. Through this event, the UAC reached over 3,000 new citizens and talked directly with over 500 people about Cooperative Extension and their services related to urban agriculture.

The UAC plans to repeat this event next year and will continue to build on the successful collaboration to develop larger-scale community-based educational programs in the future.






Stories by Bethany Pratt


Community Gardens Contribute to Food Security During a Pandemic

about 3 years ago by Bethany Pratt

The Jefferson Co. Extension Office manages ten community gardens across Jefferson Co. that have aver... Read More


Land Development Code Changes Lead to Expanded Access for Urban Agriculture

about 3 years ago by Bethany Pratt

Louisville Metro Government has Land Development Codes that regulate what can and cannot happen on a... Read More


Stories by Family and Consumer Sciences


Kick Kentucky Cancer

Kick Kentucky Cancer

about 3 years ago by Kerri Ashurst

This program is a collaboration between Heather Norman-Burgdolf, Amy Kostelic, Kerri Ashurst, and Na... Read More


KY Extension System: Coming Together for Racial Understanding

KY Extension System: Coming Together for Racial Understanding

about 4 years ago by Carla Jordan

2020 started off as a year of perfect vision, full of promise and potential. During the first quarte... Read More