By Sydney Boyo at NBC Connecticut
March 9th, 2025
Over 465,000 people in Connecticut are food insecure, according to Connecticut Foodshare, and learning how to farm can help combat this.
Hundreds of people in Hartford learned how to grow and gather their own food on Sunday at the third annual Growing Power Workshop.
“Anyone can learn how to grow food and we know that we can grow food anywhere,” said Cultivating Justice Project Founder Diana Martinez.
The workshop was hosted by the Cultivating Justice Project and Chick Ahoy Farm with the goal of educating people and opening dialogue to have a conversation about the power of the community.
“We’ve here decided to highlight people in our neighborhoods who are expert growers of food,” said Martinez. “Who know what they’re doing, who can teach us all how to do the things that they know.”
People got the chance to learn how to gather mushrooms safely, raise chickens, grow and compost food, fish, beekeeping and more.
“I want everybody to know that there are options and there are health options,” said mushroom gathering instructor Syreeta White. “People are going to learn how to forage for wild edible mushrooms. That are nutrient dense, could be grown in their backyard or definitely locally.”
Over 350 people registered for the day-long event, according to Martinez.
