BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The city of Birmingham is investing $100,000 in its growing network of urban farms through a new grant program administered by Jones Valley Teaching Farm, a nonprofit that has helped reshape the city’s food landscape over the past two decades.
Funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, the Urban Farmer Grant Program is providing 10 grants of $10,000 each to community-based growers working in neighborhoods that have long struggled with food access and disinvestment. City officials say the money is meant to help urban farming groups recover from pandemic-era operational shortfalls and address deeper inequities in economic opportunity and investment.
The Birmingham City Council first approved $120,000 for Jones Valley Teaching Farm in October 2024, directing the organization to regrant most of the funding to urban farmers as part of the city’s more than $141 million in ARPA allocations tied to economic recovery, food access, small business support and community development. The $100,000 in awards announced this month represents the latest phase of that effort.
Jones Valley Teaching Farm and the city named 10 recipients for the 2026 Urban Farmer Grant Program, including A Beautiful Life Enterprises (ABLE), Birmingham Eastside EcoGardens, Birmingham Urban Gardeners, Bush Hills Connections Inc., Christian Service Mission, East Lake Recovery Center, The Flourish and LiftUp Alabama Foundation, among others. The awardees operate gardens and farms that pair food production with education, wellness programming and community-building, often in neighborhoods identified as food deserts or lacking easy access to fresh, affordable food.
Jones Valley Teaching Farm was selected as the city’s regranting partner in part because of its Good Community Food initiative, which supports neighborhood gardens, growers and community organizations with training, technical assistance and shared resources. The group also runs its Good School Food program, a hands-on food education model that builds farm labs at Birmingham schools and connects students to farming and culinary arts during the school day. In 2024, the City Council approved $250,000 to expand those school-based efforts and previously backed additional infrastructure and programming through separate agreements.
Urban agriculture has become a central piece of Birmingham’s broader strategy to tackle food deserts, support small businesses and reuse vacant land. More than 40 of the city’s 99 neighborhoods are considered complete food deserts, and city leaders have partnered with groups such as Jones Valley Teaching Farm and the University of Alabama at Birmingham on research and pilot projects aimed at making it easier to launch and sustain community farms. A UAB-supported research initiative is studying how to convert underused lots into productive urban agriculture sites, giving residents tools to grow food and, in some cases, generate income.
Supporters of the Urban Farmer Grant Program say the new awards build on years of groundwork by local gardeners, nonprofits and neighborhood groups who have used small plots, school farms and cooperative gardens to increase access to fresh produce while strengthening community ties. With the latest round of funding, Birmingham and Jones Valley Teaching Farm are positioning urban agriculture as a forward-looking tool for food justice, youth education and local economic growth, not just a short-term response to the pandemic.