Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman was at u=our New American Farm Market Thursday, August 11, to celebrate Kentucky Farmer’s Market Week and to honor the innovative, one-of-a-kind outreach in west Louisville. The program was organized by the Kentucky Community Farm Alliance.

The New American Farm Market features produce grown by participants in Common Earth Gardens,, our outreach that provides refugees who have relocated to Louisville the opportunity to continue their heritage of farming and to grow culturally significant foods for their families and friends.

This year, the program expanded to establish the New American Farm Market that operates just outside the building where newly arriving refugees attend cultural orientation classes at MRS. Now, former refugees are providing culturally appropriate foods to newly arriving refugees who have no other way to access them. The market is set up to accept EBT cards (food stamps) which new refugees receive early on.

According to Laura Stevens, director of the Common Earth Gardens, most people who come here as refugees experience significant and unnecessary illness due to a radical change in diet from whole, fresh foods to processed ones. Common Earth Gardens provides them a place to grow foods that they want and need. The market provides them a place to purchase them.

In addition, Stevens said, the program is thrilled to have a market available to the residents of west Louisville who often have limited access to farm fresh vegetables.

Currently more than 400 families with Common Earth Gardens grow crops on 16 acres at 7 sites throughout metro Louisville, in areas most heavily populated by refugee communities. Last year, growers harvested 500,000 pounds of produce valued at more than $800,000. One facet of the program includes an Incubator Farm where growers are mentored in developing their own agribusiness.