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(Maki Becker, Buffalo News) In the spring of 2003, the Massachusetts Avenue Project turned a vacant lot on the West Side into a vegetable garden.
The neighbors didn’t exactly know what to make of it.
“They thought it was weird,” recalled Diane Picard, executive director of the organization. “Or they thought: ‘Oh, this is a nice little gardening project.'”
Ten growing seasons later, urban farming is flourishing in Buffalo, just as it has in cities across the nation.
A small but growing group of people with a taste for local food, a passion for living sustainably and a devotion to ensuring everyone has access to healthy, affordable food has started urban farms in vacant lots on both the West Side and the East Side.
This year, urban farming is approaching a new level in Buffalo.
A group of young people who recently bought up old vacant lots on Michigan Avenue and Peckham Streets has teamed up with other East Side urban farmers to form a farming cooperative. Their goal is to pool their skills and resources so that they can generate enough produce to feed themselves and sell at market stands to the public.
