We pay our respects to the rightful custodians of the land we grow on, the Gundungurra and Darug people.
Farm It Forward is a charitable youth organisation running socio-environmental care programs for high school aged young people that focus on culturally aware and trauma informed youth support through growing, cooking and eating nutrient-dense fresh food.
We facilitate regenerative food production on already available, unused land, using earth friendly community care practices. Our work is centred around high school- aged young people in areas of social disadvantage as we believe in growing fresh food as an avenue for building skills, confidence and positive relationships, for greater mental, social and physical health.
Over its 6 years of operation our FiF pilot project in the Blue Mountains has provided avenues for obtaining skills and opportunities to participate in regenerative food growing, while tackling issues of fresh food accessibility, social isolation, social inclusion, and mental health.
Our grow tunnel at Katoomba High School
Our grow tunnel at Katoomba High School is a hands-on space for transformative learning programs for young people in the areas of regenerative food growing, socio-environmental care, First Nations-led bush regeneration, finding ways to practically apply and embed the concept of caring for Country in our every day lives.
Our Farm It Forward Market Gardening Plots
In exchange for allowing their land to be used for market gardening, landowners with unused land receive their weekly needs in vegetables for free, grown on their own property or on other land farmed by the project.
In the process, regular and supportive contact between paid young urban farmers and volunteer participants provides peer support benefits, addressing loneliness and anxiety, adding value to the lives of isolated people and giving purpose and meaningful employment to young aspiring growers.
Paid young people and volunteers from the community visit the market gardens weekly, maintaining local, organic food production, and enhancing cross-generational community connections.
Social wellbeing, belonging and improved mental health are a significant focus in our weekly community volunteer sessions, where we offer a supportive context for gentle, social nature based therapy.
All excess produce and flowers are sold to local food cooperatives, cafes, and directly to our community via our Saturday farmgate (subscribe to our email list on our website for more info).
This provides the social enterprise a viable source of revenue allowing it to continue its important work in the community.
We work alongside youth organisations including MYST (Mountains Youth Support Team) and Street Uni Katoomba, hosting in-school youth outreach sessions, food growing and nature-therapy programs.
Our past and present supporters include Blue Mountains City Council, Greater Sydney Local Landcare Service, Landcare Australia, the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, Susan Templeman MP, the Blue Mountains Food Co-op, and Bendigo Bank.
What is a 'Market Garden' and What Growing Methods Do We Use?
A "market garden" is simply a vegetable plot, where the produce is sold to the community as opposed to being grown for personal use. Through selling produce grown here, Farm It Forward actively contributes to circular economics, greater food security and community resilience.
We like to call our method radical non-disturbance. We never dig or till the soil, only add a generous layer of organic matter on top, before and after each crop. We treat each crop as a cover crop, keeping the soil happy with living plants at all times, nurturing and feeding a diverse community of soil microorganisms that in turn keep our plants and ecosystems happy. Our sources of organic material/compost are our own worm farms and good quality locally sourced mushroom compost. We have regenerated over 2 acres of depleted, eroded soil in this way, and turned it into productive, healthy urban market gardens.