Fresh Start Foods is a collaborative urban agriculture project combining the efforts of Findlay Market, the City of Cincinnati's Urban Agriculture Program, St. Leo the Great Parish, and the Civic Garden Center.
Findlay Market Farms!, the Corporation for Findlay Market’s urban farming project, enhances the Corporation’s efforts to enlarge a vibrant farmers market and increase the amount of fresh, nutritious, and locally grown produce available in Cincinnati’s urban core. It trains low income men and women, minorities, and immigrants about the benefits, challenges and logistics of growing market production gardens and selling at farmers markets and wholesale, improving the participants’ ability to be successful entrepreneurs and increasing the number of local food producers in Cincinnati. Findlay Market's component of the program is funded by the United Sates Department of Agriculture – NIFA Community Food Projects grant.
The 1.25 acre site at Westwood Northern Boulevard has been named Fresh Start Food by the St. Leo the Great Parish farm team. Burundian refugees are coordinated by farm manager Ben Nava. The project is supported by the City of Cincinnati Urban Agriculture Program funded through an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant from the United States Department of Energy (DOE), administered through the City's Office of Environmental Quality, Findlay Market and the Cincinnati Food Hub.
St. Leo's Fresh Start Foods Urban Garden allows participants to earn a supplemental income while learning farming skills. It also allows participants to provide fresh produce for their own tables and the added benefit that horticultural therapy offers.
Look for us at Findlay Market under the name: Fresh Start Foods. In season, the freshest fruit, vegetables, and flowers in the city are available at Findlay Market's Saturday farmers market.
Sunday, and Tuesday farmers markets. Everything sold in the farmers markets is locally grown, and most of it is harvested immediately prior to market day. Be sure to stop by both the farmers market shed in the north parking lot and our Grow West vendors on Elder Street for a wide selection of locally grown and made products.