August 20, 2025
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is pleased to announce the Fiscal Year 2025 Urban Agriculture Grant recipients. These competitive grants promote youth agricultural education and agriculture-connected community development. The program serves urban areas - cities with a population over 5,000 and communities on federally recognized tribal land regardless of population size.
The MDA awarded grant funds to 33 projects, receiving a combined $1,692,957 to strengthen urban agriculture and expand access to locally grown foods in communities across the state.
Awardees include nonprofit organizations, schools and school districts, and local government entities. Funding can be used to purchase equipment, make physical improvements, and support staff time needed to deliver urban agriculture programming. See the table below for a description of funded projects.
The Urban Agriculture Grant Program is funded through the Agricultural Growth, Research, and Innovation (AGRI) Program. Through AGRI the MDA administers grants to farmers, agribusinesses, schools, and more throughout Minnesota to advance the state’s agricultural and renewable energy sectors.
Fiscal Year 2025 Urban Agriculture Grantees
| Organization | City | Project Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Appetite For Change | Minneapolis | Engage North Minneapolis youth in agricultural programming through paid hands-on training at urban farms, enabling 30 participants to grow and donate 7,500 lbs. of produce, develop a tailored curriculum, and sustain long-term community impact. |
| Augsburg University | Minneapolis | Enhance the Augsburg Community Garden project in Cedar-Riverside by upgrading garden infrastructure, hosting multilingual community events, and increasing food production through culturally relevant gardening practices. |
| Boys & Girls Club of the Bemidji Area | Bemidji | Revitalize the club's garden space by incorporating a new curriculum, capturing rainwater to eliminate flooding, adding a pollinator garden, and developing a plan to build sustainability into the garden program. |
| Child Care Choices Inc. dba Milestones | Waite Park (various locations) | Implement the Harvesting Bright Futures: Urban Agriculture for Child Care project, equipping 100 family child care educators with the tools, training, and resources to integrate urban agriculture education into their programs. Project will reach over 600 young children annually. |
| City of Richfield, Recreation Dept, Richfield Farmers Market | Richfield | Deliver youth and adult programs at the Richfield Community Center on gardening, cooking with homegrown produce, and food business development. Project will also purchase communal tools, install an outdoor garden shed, and build raised beds at two community garden sites. |
| Darling Little Farm | St. Paul | Deliver weekly agriculture workshops for persons with disabilities and caretakers through partnership with Highland Friendship Club. Funds will be used to develop curriculum and purchase equipment and materials for those classes. |
| East Phillips Neighborhood Institute | Minneapolis | Expand existing community workshop programming to provide free, environmentally-focused education informed by Indigenous traditional knowledge to local K-12 youth through summer camps and at after school programs. Funds will also be used to continue community-wide cultural workshops at community gardens in the East Phillips neighborhood. |
| Folwell Neighborhood Association | Minneapolis | Add infrastructure to protect and add to the functionality of the Folwell Neighborhood gardens, increasing accessibility to the community. Funds will also be used to provide stipends to their garden managers at two garden sites. |
| Freedom Farms MPLS | Minneapolis | Transform a vacant North Minneapolis lot into a vibrant green space, engage residents and youth with urban farming and sustainability workshops, improve food security, promote environmental stewardship, and create local agricultural job opportunities for a resilient community. |
| Friendly Hmong Farms LLC | Minnetonka | Establish a professional development program for Hmong women farmers and youth in Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington counties. Funds will support regenerative farming, entrepreneurship, and market access through intergenerational farming opportunities. |
| Friends School of Minnesota | St. Paul | Install seven raised beds, fruit trees, a hydroponic system, and chickens on school grounds, engaging K–8 students in garden maintenance to deepen agricultural knowledge. |
| Frog Tree Farm | Brooklyn Park | Empower urban youth in Brooklyn Park and surrounding neighborhoods with hands-on farm education, cohort-based seed sowing, soil health projects, expert-led workshops, and rural farm retreats to cultivate sustainability, ag career pathways, and urban–rural partnerships. |
| Global Entrepreneurship Week Minnesota | St. Paul | Expand Way of the Roots Farm family farming program at two new St. Paul locations. The project will focus on a tiered mentorship program where teen farmers will train younger children in sustainable growing practices and wellness opportunities through agriculture. |
| Hand In Hand | Roseville | Equip and integrate urban ag infrastructure, including maple syrup equipment, raised beds, greenhouse, composting, brick oven, and hydroponics, to establish a self-sustaining farm and hands-on educational programming led by four student teams. |
| Harvest Hope Farm | Moorhead | Cultivate agriculture knowledge and creativity with mobile Farm Camp on Wheels and on-site programs for youth ages 3–17. Funds will be used to purchase art supplies and other necessary learning tools to facilitate these camps, staff wages for on-site and mobile camps, and art structures that will be created by program youth. |
| Headwaters Regional Development Commission | Bemidji | Revitalize Conifer Estates community garden in Bemidji by replacing 10 raised beds with fresh soil, installing irrigation, and supplying seeds and tools. Funds will also be used to organize workshops to connect residents to the garden spaces. |
| Hermantown Community Schools | Hermantown | Develop the Hermantown Learning Garden to expose youth aged Pre-K - 5, to the growth cycle and process of growing food through hands-on learning opportunities. Funds will be used to purchase supplies for raised beds, garden infrastructure, starter plants, and other garden equipment. |
| Humboldt High School Garden Project | St. Paul | Expand Humboldt School Garden by adding an orchard and raised beds, hiring students for summer care and harvest, improving soil health with compost and mulch, installing drip irrigation, and building cold frames to extend the growing season. |
| Irreducible Grace Foundation | St. Paul | Deepen youth engagement in sustainable urban agriculture at Frogtown’s Black Youth Healing Arts Center by expanding garden beds, integrating African American heritage gardening methods, launching a mobile Pay-What-You-Can Market, and funding stipends and coordinators. |
| Lake Region Healthcare Foundation | Fergus Falls | Increase production capacity at the Lake Region Takes Root Community Garden by building a greenhouse. Produce will be donated to area food shelves. A youth education and internship position will also be initiated using grant funds. |
| Lower Phalen Creek Project | St. Paul | Establish a four sisters demonstration garden at Wakan Tipi Center in St. Paul. Funds will purchase a storage container, raised beds, and other equipment to make the learning space accessible to the community, including youth, elders, and those with physical disabilities. |
| Midwest Food Connection | St. Paul | Equip West Side (St. Paul) K–12 students with hands-on urban agriculture education, raising plants, harvesting produce, tending to neighborhood gardens, and creating a mentorship opportunity for high school youth to work with elementary-aged youth. |
| Native American Community Development Institute | Minneapolis | Continue community food sovereignty in the Phillips neighborhood by enhancing programming across three sites, building infrastructure, supplying maintenance materials, staffing events, and launching a summer internship at the Four Sisters Urban Farm and Farmers' Market. |
| Northwestern Minnesota Juvenile Center | Bemidji | Provide Northwestern Minnesota Juvenile Center's youth hands-on agricultural opportunities by restoring a greenhouse with utilities, creating a fenced-in space to add more garden beds, and purchasing necessary equipment to support the programs' growth. |
| Owatonna Alternative Learning Center | Owatonna | Implement a hydroponic agriculture program to teach students green-tech skills, entrepreneurship, and agricultural growing practices. |
| Pillsbury United Communities | Minneapolis | Facilitate educational opportunities for youth aged 14-18 as a part of the Pillsbury Untied Communities Food System Youth Internship program. Funds will be used to support a cohort of 5 paid youth interns in an 8-week summer internship and a cohort of 4 paid youth interns during an academic year internship, using the on-site garden space as the classroom. |
| Seward Montessori Parent Teacher Association | Minneapolis | Construct 6–8 garden structures in Seward Montessori’s courtyard to establish a vegetable and medicinal plant garden that fosters environmental stewardship and hands-on learning. |
| Sheridan Neighborhood Organization | Minneapolis | Expand the donation garden by building a retaining wall, installing perennial beds, hiring a Garden Manager, and driving outreach and educational signage to boost food security, sustainability, and community engagement at the community garden. |
| Sustainable Farming Association | Minneapolis | Support the Twin Cities Metro Growers Network (TCMG) through a three-year series of educational and networking events designed to educate and connect urban growers, strengthening community connections and sustainable farming skills among Minneapolis–St. Paul urban growers. |
| Textile Center | Minneapolis | Expand the Dye Garden along University Avenue’s north sidewalk, install drip irrigation and natural‐fiber composting, cultivate native dye plants, and sustain accessible, multilingual fiber‐art education via signage, forums, classes, internships, and community partnerships within the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. |
| UMN Extension 4-H Youth Development | Minneapolis (various locations) | Empower young people to understand the connections between climate science and food systems through hands-on projects such as building hydroponic systems, growing microgreens, container gardening, youth-led community action projects, and climate story podcasts. Field trips to local farms and urban-ag businesses will be a component of this project. Based at multiple sites in Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park, Waconia, Carver, and St. Paul. |
| Urban Roots MN | St. Paul | Support the Market Garden Program and Community Garden Program on the East Side (St. Paul) by improving water infrastructure, covering staff wages, providing mentor stipends, and purchasing necessary farm equipment. |
| Urban Ventures | Minneapolis | Develop a cohort of 7 educators to teach 500 youth (pre-k to high school) a variety of agriculture and nutrition experiences, tripling the number of youth impacted. Funds will cover wages for youth educators and a hydroponics manager. |
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Media Contact
Nikki Warner, MDA Communications
651-238-7909
Nikki.Warner@state.mn.us
