Dahlia Campus Farm

 

SCF worked in partnership with the Mental Health Center of Denver (now called WellPower) from 2015-2018 to design, build, and operate the Dahlia Campus Community Farm at the Dahlia Campus for Health and Well-Being in Northeast Park Hill (NE Denver).  WellPower now manages it on their own!

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The Dahlia Campus incorporates a wide variety of community services and is a collaborative approach to growing and educating community members about food.  The Dahlia Campus Farms and Gardens includes a one-acre urban farm, a 5,400 square foot aquaponics greenhouse, experiential gardens for children, horticultural therapy gardens, a food pantry/donation distributor and a farmers market.  SCF enjoyed working with so many partners to bring this amazing project to life including MHCD, Colorado Aquaponics, Children’s Farms of America, People’s Community Food Project, and Mo’ Betta Green Marketplace.

After partnering with Mental Health Center of Denver for the first 4 years of the project—designing the space, building the farm, training the staff, and managing farm operations, food distribution, and education programs—in 2018, MHCD was ready to take it on and Sprout City Farms transitioned management of the Dahlia Campus Farm over to them.  Both the on-site greenhouse (built with Colorado Aquaponics) and the 1-acre farm (built by us) are now under MHCD.  They have hired our farm manager (who moved up the SCF ranks beginning with an internship and apprenticeship), and we’re proud to say we set them up for long-term success!