The Gray Street Farmers Market, Knob Hill Farms CSA subscriptions and UofL’s Community Gardens, all in collaboration with UofL’s Sustainability Council, can help campus neighbors and Cardinals supplement grocery store produce. These options can provide healthy alternatives, reduced costs and decreased individual environmental impact.

“Nothing is more indicative of unsustainable living than our widespread disconnection from the most fundamental thing that sustains us, where and how our food is grown,” said UofL’s Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives��Justin Mog. “These initiatives represent the university’s best efforts to reconnect us to the land, the ecology, the local economies and the people that we cannot live without.”

Each program below is open to the public:

• 
  Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
  June – September

• 
  Pickups Tuesday at UofL 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
  CSA Subscriptions

• 
  Alternating Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
• 
  Summer Garden Gatherings:��Urban & Public Affairs Garden 7 p.m., Mondays;
  Garden Commons 12 p.m., Thursdays

Knob Hill Farms and Community Supported Agriculture

Since 2004, Keith McKenzie and his family have managed Knob Hill Farm’s 26 acres, including two acres of USDA-certified organic farmland, to share healthy and locally grown produce with Louisville’s residents. When McKenzie moved with his wife to Louisville to work on his master’s degree in social work, the pair rented plots to garden while living in the city. The community they found in Louisville and their love of gardening were the beginning sprout of Knob Hill Farms. The connections made through gardening encouraged McKenzie to expand his gift for gardening and community building to Knob Hill Farms and, ultimately, community-supported agriculture (CSA).

“What we want to do is share what it’s like to grow produce, what it’s like to farm, what it’s like to encounter nature on multiple fronts,” McKenzie said.

Knob Hill Farms is able to operate thanks to their CSA subscriptions, which allow customers to buy a share in the farm for the season by supporting the work and reaping the harvest through weekly in-season provisions. Each week, McKenzie meets subscribers at one of his pickup locations, including a stop at UofL’s Belknap Campus. At these pickups, McKenzie hears directly from customers about their upcoming needs from Knob Hill Farms which allows him to adapt crop choices. Farmers Markets and CSA create mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and their customers without additional cost or damage from a third-party grocery store.

“There’s been a move to modernize and to embrace technology. At what cost and at what expense? I believe in the exchange for convenience and in pursuit of, ultimately, the American Dream. We gave up power. We gave up control of how we prepare food and what is in the food that’s prepared for us,” McKenzie said. “And for my wife and me, this – I believe – is an opportunity for us to gain some control, some power, some sense of liberation.”

Gray Street Farmers Market�� �� ��

Begun in 2009, the Gray Street Farmers Market (GSFM) is a project of in partnership with the Louisville Metro Dept. of Public Health and Wellness and Catholic Charities Common Earth Gardens. Their goal is to increase access to fresh food in downtown Louisville. In addition to providing access to affordable, locally grown produce, the market welcomes craft vendors, food trucks and partners like the Louisville Free Public Library. The market is open every Thursday, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. from June through September, rain or shine.

The GSFM offers several food access programs to provide support to customers enrolled in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) and seniors. SNAP dollars can be tripled at the Gray Street Farmers Market through the Triple Dollar Program.

UofL Community Gardens

Seeking out local produce may not take you much further than your own backyard, neighborhood or campus. Gardening is another way to shorten your grocery store list while decreasing environmental damage. UofL’s two community gardens, Garden Commons and Urban & Public Affairs Garden, are cared for and harvested by students, staff, faculty and public volunteers. Each week, volunteers meet to care for the garden, learn and enjoy a share of the produce.

In November, voters in the city of Louisville will elect a new mayor and Metro Council. University of Louisville social scientist Lauren Heberle and the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, Louisville’s affordable housing advocacy group, are ready.��

MHC’s 2022 , titled “Toward a Just Future in Uncertain Times,” was released in June. It is the latest annual MHC report written by Heberle, director of the University of Louisville Center for Environmental Policy & Management in the College of Arts & Sciences, along with graduate student researchers.��

Heberle has contributed to the report since 2006 and written it for more than a decade. Kelly Kinahan, a former UofL assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Public Affairs, was co-author since 2017. (Kinahan has since left the university.)��

The report, at 90 pages, is the longest and most comprehensive ever, designed to be the go-to document for newly elected Louisville leaders who need current information on housing. ��

The MHC report is normally published in November, but its schedule was thrown off by the Covid-19 pandemic. That gave MHC and Heberle’s team the chance to “do a real deep dive” before the November election, she said.��

“If you don’t have it documented, it makes it harder to hold folks accountable or keep moving it forward, especially in something as complicated as housing,” Heberle said. ��

The current report will serve as a road map for the new administration. It is jam-packed with tables, charts, maps and graphics used to help MHC and others advocate for housing changes in Louisville. ��

UofL students also contribute mightily to the report, with several taking a lead on data analysis every year. Some are undergraduate students, some are graduate students. Some are sociology majors, while others are from urban and public affairs. ��

This applied research is a “way of teaching them how to make sense and talk about the importance of research for policy change, for social change, for social justice,” Heberle said.��

 “Figuring out how to understand this complicated structure of funding and policy that comes down from the federal government and shapes how Louisville is able to function is a really important learning opportunity for our students,” she added. Students have used their experience working on the report to help them apply for jobs, she said.��

Tony Curtis, executive director of MHC, noted the many years Heberle has worked on the report.��

“Producing this report is not only important to drive the fair, accessible and affordable housing conversation in Louisville and making the best housing data and analysis available for policymakers, advocates, and the community, it is a research and educational tool that Lauren uses to teach her UofL students and give those students the opportunity to engage in research that has real community impact,” Curtis said. “This is the beauty of the State of Metropolitan Housing Report collaboration between MHC, Lauren and her team.”��

There have been some years that the report focused on research topics suggested by Heberle or her students, while other years the report is in response to a specific need or request that MHC has, such as preparing for upcoming legislation.��

“They’ve understood the value of working with students and have seen that work to their benefit over the years,” Heberle said of MHC, “and have been really supportive of our students in that work.”��

As director of the in A&S, Heberle might have two or three graduate students working with her on the MHC report or another project each semester.����

Students bring different interests and talents to the project. “I’ve had folks come to the table saying, ‘I want to learn how to make better maps,’” she said, and they produced maps for the report. Additionally, she and her students often work closely with UofL’s and the .��

Learning how to obtain and report federal census data is a big part of compiling the report. Students learn how to put the information that is available — which fluctuates — into a form that MHC can use for its needs — which also fluctuates. ��

“That’s a learning experience for students,” she said. ��

Heberle also leads community engagement for the created at UofL about five years ago to support research on the cardiometabolic effects of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs). As a social scientist, her focus is community engagement, or working with the public affected by the sites. UofL is one of several universities that conduct research or outreach on the sites .��