Urban agriculture is a minimally tapped economic opportunity for established and prospective farmers in Kentucky that can increase specialty crop production and improve access to locally-grown products within communities. Very few production resources are available for urban farms, particularly growers for whom English is not their first language, and without a strong support network, growers and urban farming practitioners are highly siloed, with little opportunity for collaboration or knowledge sharing. Community partners have shown an interest in partnering to host trainings that will improve production knowledge and capacity, reduce market barriers, and increase food system literacy of growers in urban areas of the state.

Three Beginning Urban Farmer Specialty Crop Production and Food Safety Workshops were hosted by UK Horticulture Extension Specialist Cindy Finneseth, in collaboration with Jeff Coles of the Kentucky Innovative Farming Network (KFIN). Two sessions were hosted in Lexington (8/26 and 3/29) and one in Louisville (5/19) for current and prospective urban growers to increase their specialty crop production and food safety knowledge. The lecture-style portion included an introduction to small-scale fruit and vegetable production in Kentucky, the key points of food safety using Produce Best Practices Training (PBPT) resources, and the basics of farm food safety plans using resources from Cultivate Kentucky. Translators were available to help explain key concepts in the participants' native languages. As hands-on activities, growers were shown different models of handwashing stations and then constructed low cost units and determined what supplies were critical or optional for effective field hygiene to ensure safe production of produce crops.Urban farmers constructing handwash stations at the Buechel Train Depot in Louisville (Jefferson Co), KY. 

Participants were a combination of beginning and experienced growers, with 55 participating in the workshops across 3 locations. Additionally, 

• 42 successfully completed the Produce Best Practices Training (PBPT) post-training quiz
• 100% reported learning new information about food safety
• 80% reported they were “confident” or "very confident" they could construct and supply a field handwash station
• 50% indicated they will start a farm food safety plan
• 5 participants are interested in developing a cooperative or other business model where they can aggregate products to reach new market channels (i.e. retail grocery stores)