Growing Good food

Working together, CEI staff, interns, volunteers, and community partners have grown thousands of pounds of produce at Freetown Farm since 2020 using regenerative agriculture practices. Our primary growing spaces at the farm are our Market Garden, the Grow It, Eat It Garden, the Children's Garden; NAACP Garden; and the Climate Victory Garden. We distribute our food to the community through:

• Donation, primarily to Columbia Community Care and to the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.
• Direct sales from our farm stand and to community partners such as the Roving Radish.

Our garden Partners

Just as biodiversity strengthens natural systems, the diversity of human experience strengthens our efforts to create socially and ecologically healthy communities.  CEI is committed to honoring diversity, prioritizing inclusion, and working towards equity in all we do. Our partner gardens are managed by nonprofit organizations that use their space to aid in their important social and racial justice work. ​

NAACP

The Howard County Branch of the NAACP has been a part of stewarding Freetown Farm since the beginning of the 2020 growing season. Members have designed, established, and nurtured a bountiful vegetable garden from scratch, growing abundant kale, chard, okra, basil, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and more!
​In 2021, approximately 175 volunteers helped out, with 40 families participating in the George Washington Carver community supported agriculture initiative!
​Check out this video from the NAACP garden.

HopeWorks
HopeWorks  volunteers  and  staff  spent  more than 100 hours on Freetown Farm in 2021, working in the HopeWorks Healing Garden -- a safe space of connection and growth for survivors of domestic violence. This produce and perennial garden offers a meditative space that helps survivors build a stronger community and foster a deeper appreciation and bond with the earth.
The HopeWorks Our Earth program supports exploration of environmental injustices that disproportionally affect those who are marginalized.

The Third
​The 3rd is a Howard County non-profit that supports women of color entrepreneurs. The 3rd primarily works in the medicinal herb garden at Freetown Farm by installing raised beds that showcase plants used for health and well-being. ​The garden has become a place where community members can rest, reflect, and restore their energy. As The Third brings forward their unique and important community space in the Columbia Town Center, there is a vision of having the herbs grown at Freetown Farm be used in The Third's Cafe. 

Columbia Community Care
The Mission of Columbia Community Care is to provide resources, services, and programs to students and families in Howard County, under four pillars: liberation education, health and healing, purpose pathways, and essential resources.  Their intention is to build relationships, cultivate & develop social and collective power, promote knowledge of self & history, and build economic independence & generational wealth. CCC is both a participant in and beneficiary of the growing of food in the market garden at Freetown Farm.