Executive Summary
As of September 2021, the UW Farm team launched the Strategic Plan Initiative. This project is all about creating room for the UW Farm team - which includes students, staff, faculty, campus organizations, and community members - to collectively reimagine the structure and purpose of the UW Farm as to be more financially sustainable. As a campus and community organization, the UW Farm has provided innumerable opportunities for people to learn about and practice urban farming. The UW Farm is also a key food provider for UW Housing & Food Services, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shareholders, and the UW Food Pantry. This latter partnership helped the UW Farm further step into the role of addressing food insecurity and community resilience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the UW Farm holds a valued partnership with wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ through the Native Garden and the future Cultural Kitchen. In moving forward with developing a 5-year Strategic Plan, we aim to strengthen community partnerships and create the financial infrastructure to support diverse, unique, and inclusive opportunities for our campus community. The Campus Sustainability Fund is supporting this project through funding a year-long graduate student Research Assistant - Madison Rose Bristol - to spearhead this work. Some of this funding also assists the UW Farm Manager - Perry Acworth - in restructuring UW Farm activities. Though this work will take place between September 2021 - June 2022, our hope is to begin implementing the 5-year plan in the Spring of 2022, and to lay the foundation for the development of another Strategic Plan in 2027.