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Growing community through urban agriculture

A group of people gather at a community garden.

Hennepin County's Growing Communities program transforms tax-forfeited and vacant land into vibrant urban agriculture sites, working in partnership with community organizations to grow food, pollinators, and medicinal plants. Our community partners plan and manage 12 lots totaling nearly 80,000 square feet, shaped by the needs of its neighborhood.

Our partners work closely with their community and offer opportunities for youth and adults to produce food, learn about agriculture, and create a climate resilience space in their neighborhood. The projects increase food security by producing food for the community, offering land for neighbors to grow culturally relevant food, and bringing the community together for shared meals. These sites provide space and opportunities for residents to learn and practice agricultural skills through internships, workshops, and community workdays.

Some participants apply these skills in their own backyard gardens and in the workforce. In recent years, our partners grew over 4,200 pounds of food, and just in 2025, 1,300 residents participated in programming or benefited directly from the harvest.

Community gardens

University of Minnesota Extension – Urban Agriculture Initiative

These two gardens were the first Growing Communities projects, launching in 2021 with a focus on youth skills development. This robust program brings community, food, health and wellbeing together. Youth interns have been in the lead on designing, building, and cultivating these spaces, which produces food that is distributed through a Veggie RX program at local clinics, a neighborhood food shelf, and directly to community members.

Banyan Communities Garden

Banyan Communities was new to urban agriculture when it developed this garden in 2023. Since then, the space has grown into a thriving community asset, cared for by community volunteers and integrated into youth programming. In 2026, the harvest will be shared through a new food shelf established to support families impacted by the federal immigration crackdown.

Native American Community Development Institute’s (NACDI) Four Sisters Urban Farm

The Four Sisters Farm has been operating since 2021 as a space to promote indigenous stewardship, reclamation of traditional foodways, and community connection. The farm is located on three adjacent lots owned by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority along East 29th Street between Bloomington and 18th Avenue, adjacent to the Midtown Greenway. Since its launch, the project has stabilized and transformed these lots into a beautified, safer, and more deeply connected community space.

Folwell Neighborhood Association (FNA)

In 2011, a tornado in north Minneapolis left many lots emptied in its wake. Folwell Neighborhood Association transformed one such lot into a successful community garden in 2015. In 2025, another nearby lot - also left vacant by the 2011 tornado - was purchased by Hennepin County and is now being developed by FNA as an expansion of its garden campus, creating additional space for food production and community connection.

McKinley Community

In 2026, McKinley Community is integrating this formerly tax-forfeited lot into its longstanding work around food access, green space, and community-led gardening in the McKinley neighborhood.

This new site expands food access east of I-94, bringing fresh growing space to a residential pocket surrounded by industrial activity.

Minnetonka Garden

Our largest project is a 23,632 square foot lot in Minnetonka where land has been converted to gardens that produce food that is donated to food security programs in the community.

Learn more about our Community Garden partnerships

Four Sisters Farms: A Partnership (YouTube)

Gardening for change from UMN Extension

Pollinator gardens

Pollinator gardens are being established on vacant lots with community organizations leading engagement with the community to learn from and care for these lots.

Contact us

Learn more about Climate and Resiliency’s strategies to address climate change.

Contact the team at climate@hennepin.us.