Melbourne Food Hub kicks off New Urban Farm in Alphington
The Melbourne Food Hub is developing an urban farm in the heart of Alphington, to grow fresh food for sale while serving as an educational site to help aspiring farmers and gardeners learn all they need to know about growing great produce.
Launched last May, The Melbourne Food Hub is a project designed to provide greater connection between farmers and consumers, and foster a more sustainable, resilient and fair food system. Alongside the urban farm, the Food Hub is creating a community kitchen to help incubate small food business start-ups, a food distribution program aiming to increase fresh food availability in aged care homes and hospitals, a weekly farmers market, a community composting facility, a farmers depot and an extensive workshop programs looking at all aspects of local food systems from growing, selling and processing.
Audrey can’t wait to get this urban farm started!
The urban farm project is set on 600sqm bordering the Darebin parklands, on contaminated land that used to be an old tip site. With plans to expand to up to 2000sqm, the farm will include a range of raised beds and wicking beds made from different upcycled and recycled materials, a propagation space, soils education center, composting and worm farming facilities, raised food forests and permaculture inspired gardens, bush foods, mushroom cultivation and an outdoor classroom for hosting events and workshops. With a strong focus on social justice, the farm and the community kitchen will provide employment pathway opportunities for people from marginalised communities to work within the sustainable food economy, and be trained in all aspects of food production.
If you’d like to get involved and have a strong interest in food and sustainable agriculture, get in touch with The Melbourne Food Hub. There are a variety of roles suited to different skill sets, including construction and building, watering and weeding, planting, installing irrigation, harvesting food and more!
