The Akron Cooperative (TAC) is a community-based, public education organization serving to improve the food landscape.
Why are we needed? The health and quality of life for low-income families in our community is negatively impacted by poor conditions within the “food landscape.” These conditions include: Poor access to nutritious and healthy foods, disenfranchisement from regional agriculture and food production, lack of nutritional knowledge and limited capacity to meet our own food consumption needs. The rise of diet-related chronic diseases within our community is rising at an alarming rate.
Our Mission: to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of our community. Our approach is to use the valuable resources and productive traditions within our community by engaging youth and families to improve the conditions of our neighborhoods.
Our Goals: Focus on sustainable agriculture, nutrition education, entrepreneurship, and youth development to create change in our community. With that in mind, our five primary goals are to: 1. Educate residents about food systems, sustainable agriculture and healthy cooking. 2. Provide access to appropriate and affordable locally-grown, healthy, nutritional and culturally-focused food. 3. Engage and train youth as leaders in the food system and their community. 4. Build self-reliance through employment, training and local business development. 5. Building the capacity to produce food locally through sustainable agriculture.
Our Tactics: With 80 percent of the world’s population now living in cities, urban areas are increasingly important places in developing ecologically-sustainable food systems. We work to develop, advocate and educate for new forms of agricultural food production and land use within our urban area. We increase community self-reliance by developing local capacity to grow and produce food through a robust network of gardens and micro-farms. In order to support the sustainable food system, community health and job creation, we design and administer programs that involve local businesses, organizations, families and youth in the community. |
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Our Urban Farming Program Designed to increase the capacity within our community to grow food to provide affordable and fresh produce for urban residents, our urban farming program currently operates three urban garden projects interconnected into a system of sustainable food production.
City of Akron "Grow Akron" Community Gardens
University Park Alliance Community Gardens
Cascade Village Community Gardens
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Our Community Education Initiatives We are raising awareness in the community about sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, nutrition and healthy eating to enable residents to improve their health, strengthen the local economy and build a stronger relationship to food and farming. We are developing educational programs that engage children, teens and adults in hands-on learning to transform their lifestyles toward health and civic engagement.
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