PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The first full day of spring also marked the first volunteer day at Nice Roots Farm, an urban farm working to fight food insecurity in Philadelphia as part of the Share Food Program.
For the last year and a half, Robbie Chen has been spending his free time helping out at the farm, a quarter-acre plot in Hunting Park.
“I got started because of med school, and it’s just a nice way to get out and take a break,” said Chen, a volunteer at the farm. But he soon realized the work meant more than pruning plants. “Learning that I can have an impact on my local community,” he said.
Nice Roots Farm, part of the nonprofit Share Food Program, focuses on urban agriculture as a tool for food justice. “Farming in the city is a big part of food justice, and that’s one of our main goals: to bring produce to areas where people may not have access to produce,” said Ellie Kaplan, the farm’s deputy director. “We are waking up the farm. We are planting our first seeds: beets, carrots, radishes, turnips,” Kaplan said.
Volunteers also cleaned up the garden and harvested organic, chemical-free winter plants. “We can just bite and eat it right from the farm,” she added.
Once the produce is ready, it goes directly to a community fridge on West Hunting Park Avenue, where volunteers have just stocked freshly harvested spinach for neighbors to take. “Everything that we grow here on the farm that we harvest is donated for free to the community,” Kaplan said.
In 2025, Nice Roots Farm helped provide more than 6,000 pounds of produce to local residents, and staff hopes to surpass that number this year. “Starting off spring strong with a great turnout on a beautiful day,” Kaplan said.
For volunteers like Chen, the work offers a sense of purpose and connection. “Channel your energy into something productive like this,” he said.
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