Growing Food, Reclaiming Land, and Cultivating Community in North St. Louis

This is what community-rooted environmental stewardship looks like at its best.

In the Fairground neighborhood of North St. Louis, decades of disinvestment left behind vacant lots, illegal dumping, and communities cut off from fresh, affordable food. Ujima and George Washington Carver Farms are reclaiming that land, one plot at a time, and transforming it into something the neighborhood was promised but never given: green space, fresh produce, outdoor education, and economic opportunity. Since Serving Our Communities Foundation’s partnership began in 2020, George Washington Carver Farms has grown more than 10,000 pounds of food, herbs, and flowers; cleaned up more than 15,000 pounds of trash in North City; engaged more than 1,000 young people in outdoor education experiences; and launched The Sunflower Institute, a holistic program supporting Black teenagers and young adults as they build skills and shape their futures. This is what community-rooted environmental stewardship looks like at its best.

George Washington Carver spent his life proving that the land, tended with care and intention, could be a source of nourishment, dignity, and possibility for communities that had been denied both. More than eighty years after his death, a nonprofit in North St. Louis is carrying that conviction forward.

Ujima has been working in St. Louis’s 11th Ward since 2018, in neighborhoods shaped by food apartheid, environmental racism, and the kind of systemic disinvestment that leaves vacant lots where grocery stores should be and illegal dumping where green space should grow. The organization’s name, drawn from the Kwanzaa principle of collective work and responsibility, reflects its approach: the problems facing North St. Louis are collective, and so must be the solutions.

George Washington Carver Farms launched in 2021, with support from Serving Our Communities Foundation, on land in the Fairground neighborhood that had sat abandoned for years. The soil was compromised. The surrounding blocks bore the marks of decades of neglect. Ujima founder Nick Speed saw something else: a farm, a classroom, a community hub, and an act of reclamation.

Five years later, the farm has grown more than 10,000 pounds of food, herbs, and flowers, much of it donated directly to neighbors and distributed through community partners. The team has removed more than 15,000 pounds of trash from North City through neighborhood cleanup events, in partnership with earthday365, The Mission Continues, and The Garden Bridge Initiative. More than 1,000 young people have engaged in outdoor education experiences on the farm and through Ujima’s school and community partnerships, including students from Humboldt Academy of Higher Learning, North Side Community School, and Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club.

The farm’s programming has grown alongside its footprint. Raised beds, an orchard with an organic pest management strategy, cut flower production, value-added products including tea blends, tinctures, and infused oils, and a community kitchen rebuilt after tornado damage in 2025 all reflect an organization that is building something durable, season by season.

The Sunflower Institute, launched through Ujima, represents the farm’s most expansive investment in the next generation. Built around six pillars: agriculture, culinary arts, occupational therapy, conservation, entrepreneurship, and professional development, the program provides Black teenagers and young adults with immersive, paid learning experiences that connect them to career pathways, community networks, and their own potential. In 2026, Ujima hired three Sunflower Institute alumni as paid Program Coordinator Interns at $20 per hour, a signal that the pipeline the program is building leads somewhere real.

When a tornado devastated North St. Louis in May 2025, Ujima did not wait to be asked. Staff and volunteers mobilized within days to clear debris, remove fallen trees from streets and cars, and deliver supplies and food to impacted residents. It was a demonstration of what five years of community investment produces: an organization with the relationships, the infrastructure, and the instinct to show up when it matters most.

Serving Our Communities Foundation’s partnership with Ujima and George Washington Carver Farms, now in its fifth year, reflects a shared belief that the land and the people connected to it are worth investing in for the long term. The farm is not finished. Phase 2 is underway, with plans to acquire an additional ten to fifteen lots in fall 2026, expanding the urban farm to one and a half acres and deepening its reach into a neighborhood that has been waiting a long time for this kind of investment.

To support Ujima and George Washington Carver Farms directly, visit ujimastl.com.