Announcement
We are celebrating the first year of the IRC in Sacramento's New Roots Kuchenu Farm where refugees grew over 30 different crops and fed countless local families. The farm is a place where refugees, community members and local university students converge to advance agricultural initiatives and improve the lives of refugees.
Until now, refugee farmers at the New Roots Kuchenu Farm have been growing strictly for their families, since the sitewas not equipped with resources necessary to wash, pack and prepare produce for sale. But thanks to the addition of a wash station, refugee farmers will now have the opportunity to sell to local markets and restaurants!
The wash station is born out of a partnership between the IRC in Sacramento and a team of students and professors from UC Davis D-Lab and UC Davis Engineering Department. This cross-discipline team worked together to design, prototype and build a custom wash station capable of supporting the farm. The wash station even includes a solar-based water purification system with water recycling options that will help conserve water and allow farmers to reuse it elsewhere on the farm.
The farm is now outfitted with multiple sets of wash basins, tables and drying racks, so multiple farmers to use the station at any given time. As a prototype, the new wash station and purification system will be evaluated by UC Davis for potential replication on rural farms across the U.S. and internationally.
This wash station is a significant step towards increasing refugees’ self-sufficiency by creating a place where refugees can not only grow their own produce, but also prepare it to be sold commercially throughout greater Sacramento. Look for our clients' fruits and vegetables at markets and on menus soon!
If you would liketo learn more about the IRC in Sacramento's New Roots program, please contact Tom Stein at [email protected].
This project was supported by the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through grant 14-SCBGP-CA-0006. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.