March 8th, 2023 - Crops growing inside one of the greenhouses at the NECIC Urban Farm in Mansfield, Ohio.
March 8th, 2023 - OPEEP Directors and staff receive a tour of the NECIC Urban Farm from OSU Mansfield Professor Kip Curtis, NECIC Consultant Walter Bonham, and NECIC Urban Farm Manager Daniel Neef.
March 8th, 2023 - (Left to right) NECIC Urban Farm Manager Daniel Neef, NECIC Consultant Walter Bonham, and OSU Mansfield Professor Kip Curtis pose for a photo inside one of the Urban Farm's greenhouses.
March 8th, 2023 - OPEEP Directors Dr. Mary Thomas and Dr. Tiyi Morris learn more about the Urban Farm from Dr. Curtis, Farm Manager Daniel Neef, and Consultant Walter Bonham.
March 8th, 2023 - NECIC Urban Farm Manager Daniel Neef holds a small clump of soil while explaining some of the science behind the Urban Farm's soil processes.
March 8th, 2023 - NECIC Consultant Walter Bonham explains plans for future expansion to Dr. Tiyi Morris.
On March 8th, 2023, OPEEP Directors Dr. Mary Thomas and Dr. Tiyi Morris and Program Coordinator Nicole Edgerton traveled to Mansfield, Ohio to meet with community partners and visit The Ohio State University at Mansfield. OPEEP’s visit began with a tour of the NECIC Urban Farm located in Mansfield’s North End neighborhood, which operates as an extension of the North End Community Improvement Collaborative (NECIC). The NECIC has been the driving force behind numerous successful initiatives in the local community, including programs focused on improving quality of life for residents, leadership development programs for local minority populations, as well as local food initiatives (including the Urban Farm).
NECIC and the Urban Farm work in collaboration with several key partners in the Mansfield community, including OSU Mansfield, The Gorman-Rupp Company, and The Richland Gro-Op Cooperative. The Richland Gro-Op is a local micro-farming cooperative working to “nourish people, build connections, and improve our local communities.” OSU Mansfield Professor Kip Curtis created the original blueprint for the cooperative, secured funding for its initial development, and played a huge role in bringing the Urban Farm to life. Dr. Curtis researches and teaches environmental history at Ohio State and hopes to offer an OPEEP course at Mansfield’s Richland Correctional Institution (RiCI) in the near future.
Dr. Curtis joined OPEEP on our tour of the Urban Farm, which was led by Walter Bonham, local entrepreneur and NECIC Consultant, and Daniel Neef, NECIC Urban Farm Manager. Bonham brings with him a background in business management, sales, marketing, and catering. He has also worked as an educator in these areas throughout the local community, with ties to RiCI specifically, a Mansfield prison in which OPEEP seeks to expand course offerings. The Urban Farm has also collaborated with RiCI to offer a unique work release program which allows a select few incarcerated men to regularly leave the prison to work and learn on-site at the farm.
OPEEP got to meet and speak with one of the farm's incarcerated workers during our tour, who remarked on the positive impact the program has had on his life. Incarcerated individuals who work on the farm do not receive hourly compensation for their labor, but they are provided with tangible payment in other forms – daily lunches (which sometimes include cookouts), a pair of farming boots (which must remain at the farm), and the ability to exist outside of the prison facility (sometimes as late as 10pm in the summers) with minimal surveillance by prison staff (correctional officers typically just drop by for occasional check-ins at the farm, and non-incarcerated farm workers simply call in to the facility at count times to verify their coworkers’ whereabouts). Speaking to the lack of financial compensation, the incarcerated worker who spoke with OPEEP informed us that he “would’ve signed up to do this for a bologna sandwich every day.” He further explained that working at the farm “helps time go by faster,” in addition to providing him with concrete skills and goals for his life post-release. He also thanked OPEEP for our efforts to expand education on the inside, noting that “you have to stay on the system – that's the only way to change anything. That’s a fact.” Just like him, OPEEP doesn’t plan to let up our pressure on the system anytime soon!
OPEEP also had the chance to speak with a correctional officer from RiCI, who remarked on the overall success of the prison's various educational/vocational opportunities. Referring to RiCI as an “educational campus,” the officer spoke highly of other work release programs, which include working at the Ashland fairgrounds and technical training at the Shelby cell tower, in addition to the Urban Farm. Remarking on the local public perception of these work release programs, he reported that in over 25 years of experience he has never encountered a single issue, and in general, folks seem to view them as positive opportunities for both incarcerated individuals and the greater community.
Everyone working at the NECIC Urban Farm is clearly eager to expand the educational and vocational programming available to incarcerated individuals at RiCI, and several ideas for potential collaboration have already been floated between OPEEP and Walter Bonham. Bonham expressed a strong desire to collaborate with Ohio State in further developing educational opportunities for incarcerated folks in Mansfield, including more coursework on marketing and entrepreneurship, and a potential certificate program that could leave workers with a more tangible, documentable skillset to include on their resume when applying for jobs post-release. With enough support and interest from OSU Mansfield faculty and students, both ideas seem like real possibilities for the future. The Urban Farm and its work release program are clearly already yielding positive results for incarcerated individuals at RiCI, and OPEEP is looking forward to participating in the program’s growth in the years ahead.
Stay up to date on the NECIC, Urban Farm, and Richland Gro-Op by following their social media pages here:
