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Just blocks from one of the Pittsburgh region’s last remaining steel mills, more than 30 varieties of fruits and vegetables now grow in neat rows on a once-abandoned city lot.
The nonprofit Grow Pittsburgh maintains the garden in Braddock, a Monongahela River town, by hiring both full- and part-time staff along with the use of volunteers. Just about everything produced at the site, known as Braddock Farms, goes to the surrounding community.
“It’s a really good place for people to be,” said Denele Hughson, executive director of Grow Pittsburgh. “It’s a great sense of community.”
Home to over 20,000 people in 1920, Braddock now counts just over 1,700 living in the shadows of U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works. Many of those who remain lack ready access to fresh food. Braddock is not alone in this regard.
Throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, community-led efforts help bring produce and other groceries to communities where access to fresh fruits and vegetables is limited, and where some families contend with food insecurity.
In Butler County, the nonprofit Community Partnerships Inc. operates mobile produce carts, which make stops throughout the county. Earlier this year, the group was awarded a $32,000 grant from the state Department of Agriculture to begin leasing five-acres of land where they’ll grow produce for the community.
The group surveyed Butler County residents in 2022 to determine needs.
“Affordable food was identified by 73% of our respondents as a crucial need,” said Sandra Curry, executive director. “We had one additional need that was higher than that, but it involves mental and behavioral health so we can’t really do anything.”
Community Partnerships sources goods from local farms. Meat comes from Whiting Family Foods, a USDA-certified processor in New Wilmington, and grains come from Zanella Milling, one of the last producers of buckwheat flour in the county.
“Through several funding sources we've secured over the past eight months, we’ll be able to expand what we grow ourselves,” Curry said.
Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood, meanwhile, has been without a full-service grocery since Dimperio’s Market left the area 15 years ago. Now, a community-led initiative could bring a cooperative grocery store by 2027 as part of a larger project known as the Sarah Dixon Innovation Center.
The proposed two-story facility would feature a grocery store on the ground level, owned and operated by residents. The second floor would host additional resources such as a credit union, a job training hub, child care services, and more, depending on public input. Leaders also hope to have a rooftop garden to provide fresh produce to the community.
Braddock at least had a Family Dollar until May when the company closed nearly 400 stores nationwide. The local store was less than a mile from Braddock Farms.
The closest store to shop for food now is Giant Eagle in Braddock Hills, nearly an hour-long walk straight uphill for those who live in Braddock or North Braddock. That makes access challenging for those without a vehicle.
“It truly is a food desert,” said Al Walser, a farmhand at Braddock Farms. He adds that “almost nothing goes to waste” at the farm.
That's particularly important in a community like Braddock, where 36 percent of residents had an income below the federal poverty level in 2023, according to City Data.
Braddock’s Farms accepts alternative government-funded payment options such as Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks and EBT/SNAP payments.
What does not go directly from the stand to the community is donated to Wilkinsburg’s Community Ministry, which shares food with more than 5,000 residents per month.
The farm sits on the land that once held Main Hotel, a brick building demolished several years ago. Now, alongside Grow Pittsburgh, youth from both the Braddock Youth Program and the Homeless Children Education Fund spend a good bit of time working at the farm, especially in the summer.
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