For more than a decade, two city-owned greenhouses in Aurora largely have sat empty. A community group wants to put them to use, with plans to turn the greenhouses into spaces for urban agriculture.
A partnership between the city and Food Justice NW Aurora soon could launch an operation that supplies food-producing plant starts and perennials to residents, community groups and urban farms at affordable prices. The greenhouses also would grow culturally relevant foods for Aurora’s diverse communities, along with plants that thrive better inside — helping local farms and community organizations that need larger quantities of them.
“The greenhouse work is really about creating new jobs, increasing food production and access to fresh food in the city of Aurora, and providing additional educational opportunities,” said Caitlin Matthews, the executive director of Food Justice NW Aurora.
The city has earmarked $350,000 to renovate the two large greenhouses at 151 Potomac St., which have about 7,300 square feet in combined growing space. City staff recommended the approval of Food Justice’s proposal to operate a community project, and the nonprofit group has now completed a business plan that it expects to present to the City Council early this year for approval.
If it receives the green light, the group will establish “Cultivate Aurora: A Community Greenhouse Project.” One of the structures would host educational workshops on gardening and landscaping for individuals as well as horticulture and job-training programs.
Food Justice NW Aurora and other community groups say the greenhouse project is one way to fill gaps in the local food system. It would provide residents with direct access to fresh, affordable or culturally important foods, especially in parts of Aurora where there aren’t many grocery stores or easy access to garden harvests.
“Greenhouses are really a critical piece of infrastructure that most farms, particularly smaller-scale farms, and also community gardens and home gardeners typically don’t have access to,” Matthews said. “And because in Colorado we have such a short growing season, season-extension infrastructure, like greenhouses or hoop houses, are really critical in order to be able to start plants earlier and then get a more abundant harvest.”
For James Grevious, an Aurora farmer whose focus has been on mass production of food for the community, the project has the potential to power some of that growth. Farmers like him would gain a new source of seedlings and plant starters that aren’t normally available at big-box stores — or at least not in the quantities that they need, he said.
“To support a local food system that we are talking that we need, we do need to have a community-controlled resource where we can sustain that operation,” Grevious said.
Food Justice NW Aurora has committed more money for improvements to the greenhouses, including for accessibility changes. It would lease the greenhouses from the city while covering all costs for operations, maintenance and utilities.
The group has raised more than $200,000 for operating costs in the first full year. It plans to collaborate with other organizations, including Village Exchange Center, Project Worthmore, Denver Urban Gardens, Aurora Seed Farm, Urban Symbiosis and Pickens Technical College.
One of the project’s goals is to make fresh produce available at cheaper prices, especially for those who live in food deserts, whether through direct sales or sales from other farmers, Matthews said. Residents would be able to pay on a sliding scale and use their food-assistance benefits.
Grevious, who is Black, was one of the founding members of Food Justice’s steering committee. He runs three businesses that connect different parts of the local food system: Rebels in the Garden, an urban farm where people can grow their products; Urban Symbiosis, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding fresh food access; and Rebel Marketplace, a farmers market for selling those products.
“Food is a unifier, and it’s the one thing that we have in common across all ideologies, races, creeds, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “So the greenhouses can act as a connector with the broader Aurora base.”
Denver Urban Gardens has been involved since the project’s inception. The nonprofit plans to purchase seedlings for its food access program and help with educational programming.
For communities that lack convenient access to affordable and healthy food, projects like the Aurora initiative can empower people and give them more options to grow their own food, said Brittany Pimentel, director of operations for Denver Urban Gardens.
Matthews anticipates the project will create at least two full-time jobs, one part-time job and 1,500 hours of seasonal work just in the spring.
Aurora Councilwoman Crystal Murillo, who worked with residents in her ward to support the greenhouses project, sees it as a way to build up “community wealth” — through job development, better food access and sharing of knowledge.
“If we get that passed, it would be a much-needed and missing link in our local food system in order to provide more cost-effective and culturally relevant foods,” Murillo said. “And it would allow us to partner with the existing organizations that are already doing stuff like that, to either provide direct services or (help) with jobs.”
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