Ask Us: Livingstone College still plans to build urban farm

Published 7:14 am Monday, January 4, 2021

Editor’s note: Ask Us is a weekly feature published online Mondays and in print on Tuesdays. We’ll seek to answer your questions about items or trends in Rowan County. Have a question? Email it to askus@salisburypost.com.

SALISBURY — Livingstone College says it still has plans to build an urban farm off of Brenner Avenue and has received a grant to make the project happen.

The college received approval from the city of Salisbury in 2014 for a change that would allow it to revive a farm that formerly sat off of Brenner Avenue, Millford Hills Road and Locke Street. A reader asked about the status of the project, which cleared a large numbers of trees to make way for the urban farm.

While the going has been slow, Livingstone College spokeswoman Kimberly Harrington said the grant would allow the installation of a well on the roughly 40 acres off of Brenner Avenue. Because the college was closed for winter break, Harrington wasn’t able to provide specifics.

Once the well is operational, Livingstone will seek a manager for the project and plant new crops. In addition to vegetable rows, greenhouses, a vineyard and composting, the school hopes to include animals such as chickens, rabbits and potentially goats. Initial plans also included producing milk and running fish hatcheries on the site.

It will provide farm-to-table produce and herbs for Livingstone’s culinary arts school as well as for people in the West End area of Salisbury who are food insecure, Harrington said.

Once fully operational, the urban farm represents a return to past practices for Livingstone College, which in the 1940s and 1950s used produce grown on the property to provide fruits and vegetables to students.

Livingstone College first approached the city in December 2013 about building the urban farm.