Jones Valley Urban Farm just harvested its biggest cash crop ever.

The Birmingham City Council this week approved $805,000 in funding for Jones Valley Teaching Farm, which runs a downtown farm and six more on Birmingham City Schools campuses.

The Farm in the past has received $50,000 in annual support from the city, said Amanda Storey, executive director of Jones Valley Farm.

The funding comes from the city’s American Rescue Act Funding.

It will help the farm run its Good School Food education, apprenticeship and internship programs and provide fresh produce to all city schools. “It allows us to expand to all high schools,” Storey said.

The farm hires interns who are enrolled in school and work at the farms after school and during the summer, with pay of $15 an hour. It also hires high school graduates as apprentices and teaches them about agricultural professions.

The farm also has a full-time staff of 27, about a third of them graduates of Birmingham City Schools, Storey said.

The Woodlawn produce stand will open soon and the downtown produce stand will open soon, she said. The farm uses greenhouses, open fields and outdoor planters to grow crops that right now include onions and greens.

“We grow collards year-round,” Storey said. “We know our clientele.”

City Council member Crystal Smitherman said the farm’s fresh produce helps the community by reducing reliance on fast food and canned food, since many residents don’t have easy access to fresh, plentiful produce.

“I think that it’s important to get your hands dirty and also give our kids different opportunities for different careers they may not be exposed to,” Smitherman said.

Council member Darrell O’Quinn noted that the city has had to subsidize grocery stores in Central Park and East Lake to help improve fresh food availability in those neighborhoods.

“The system is broken,” O’Quinn said. “We need innovative solutions like this.”

The farm offers fresh produce to food pantries, improves food security by helping people learn to grow their own food and offers free food to the public on a donation basis, Storey said.

“It’s a powerful act, growing food,” Storey said.

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