At Central Iowa Shelter & Services’ Mulberry Farm and Food program, Iowans get hands-on training in everything from traditional planting to running hydroponic and aquaculture operations.
Writer: Sarah Diehn
Photographer: Duane Tinkey
Katie McVey loves to teach others about growing plants.
A former high school agriculture teacher, she’s enjoyed the switch from the classroom to the hands-on teaching she now does for trainees in Central Iowa Shelter & Services’ Mulberry Farm and Food program in downtown Des Moines.
The CISS team at the Schoen Greenhouse has been growing fruits and vegetables for more than 10 years and started raising shrimp this summer. (Shrimp? Yes, indeed. Read more in this story.) In 2021, CISS added a hydroponic system, which grows plants in nutrient-rich water without soil. Harvests go to the shelter’s community kitchen and food truck, and some of the surplus is sold locally.
CISS clients who are hired for the Mulberry Farm job training program work on “every aspect of the growing process,” from maintaining equipment and tilling soil to planting, pruning and weeding, McVey said.
During the paid 90-day program, participants work with CISS’ employment case manager Ashley Raske on job readiness. McVey said the combination of hands-on work and employment training helps trainees envision their next steps.
“Some [trainees] will come in and they’re pretty beat up,” McVey said. “They’ve been on the streets for a while or they just got themselves on the streets and they’re not used to it yet. And by the time they leave, between Ashley and me, they will feel confident that they can either get a job or have a job, along with learning some skills, such as time management and how to grow plants.”
One trainee, Ryan, who has previous experience working on a farm, said he has learned a lot about hydroponics from the program. “It feels like [the program] is getting me ready for the future,” he said. “Instead of just sitting around hoping for something good to come your way, you go and chase it.”
He said the work provides a sense of purpose as well. “It’s peaceful. At the end of the day you get to look back at everything you did because you can physically see it. It beats a stack of papers on a desk,” he said.
CISS acquired a food truck so program graduates could move on and learn how to manage it. McVey said as the first truck starts to make money, the shelter hopes to buy more.
Adding aquaculture
In addition to turning a 4-acre water retention basin into an agrihood with floating garden beds set to open this year, McVey and CISS also have installed an aquaponics operation.
Both projects will help the program produce more food locally and ease pressure on the supply chain, McVey said. “Because we’re locally grown, it’s easier for us to offer a consistent way to buy,” she explained. “Especially during COVID, when the grocery stores would not be able to get something in, we’re going to consistently be able to produce because we don’t really have to haul it in.”
The aquaponics system for saltwater shrimp has garnered interest from potential buyers because of limited fresh local supplies.
McVey said once CISS gets its “foot in the door” with some partners interested in shrimp, CISS can then offer to grow the specific plants those partner businesses need, making the vegetable production easier to plan and manage. That way, “we’re able to grow based on what they need rather than [deciding] what we’re going to grow and hoping someone wants to buy it,” she said.
Beyond the shrimp, McVey hopes to see the farm and training program grow even larger.
“I would hope that eventually we’re able to expand into a second greenhouse, along with getting more people involved and maybe turn it into a deal where a couple of [trainees] could start out there as a full-time job and build up a little more of a resume so that way they look better when they go and apply elsewhere,” she said.
