The Mona Center Urban Farm in Temple Hills, Maryland, is dedicated to providing fresh produce, servi
11/13/2021
The Mona Center Urban Farm had a fantastic growing season! We have welcomed so many amazing volunteers and groups to the farm this year and donated over 900 lbs of produce to the Catholic Charities Kitchen to be turned into delicious meals for the community. We have had so many exciting projects this growing season like a new small strawberry bed, small herb garden, drip irrigation system, and our first open house event! Thank you to everyone that helped us have a successful growing season. We look forward to another great growing season next year!
Let's look back at some pictures from this year!
11/11/2021
These vegetables were harvested and are ready to be donated to the Catholic Charities Kitchen!
This is our last harvest of the season and we finished off the 2021 growing season with lots of squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers to donate.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
11/07/2021
Thank you to the volunteers from the K9 Social Club who helped us with completing the final tasks around the farm for this year. With the help of these awesome volunteers we finished painting the pallets that will be displayed at the farm, completed our final harvest for the year to donate to Catholic Charities Kitchen, and cleaned up the raised beds and around the farm.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
11/05/2021
Check out this exciting and fun addition to the Mona Center Urban Farm!
The pallets were painted at our open house event in September and were recently finished by our fantastic volunteers.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
09/28/2021
Enjoy these pictures of some of our awesome volunteers from this year! Volunteers help with a variety of tasks around the farm such as harvesting, weeding, trellising, watering, and pruning. Volunteer hours for the Mona Center Urban Farm will continue in October on Tuesdays 8:30-9:30am and Saturdays 9:00-10:00am. Use the link below to sign up for a volunteer shift. We hope you can join us during our volunteer hours! http://bttr.im/qvneg
09/26/2021
Pictured here are some of the squash that we have harvested during a recent volunteer hour. We grow a variety of squash at the farm including Yellow Crookneck squash, Magda squash and Pattypan squash. The squash on top is our magda squash which is a fun and different shape compared to the other varieties!
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
09/23/2021
This week we had another successful harvest which included a variety of produce including tomatoes, peppers, squash, and we had our first harvest of beans for the season!
09/18/2021
This week the KitchenWork team at Catholic Charities Kitchen is preparing salads made by cucumbers and tomatoes grown at the Mona Center Urban Farm. We love to see how the produce goes from the farm to fresh meals like this salad!
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
09/16/2021
On Saturday we had our first public event- an open house! Thank you to everyone that joined us for the event! And a big thank you to everyone that was involved with putting the open house together - we were so excited to have you all join us. Pictured here are community members at the urban farmers meetup and marketplace and painting pallets that will then be displayed on the farm when they are all finished. We look forward to hosting more events at the farm soon.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
09/10/2021
Check out this new article about the Mona Center Urban Farm to learn more about our history, mission, and our open house scheduled for tomorrow Saturday September 11!
Thank you to the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Maryland for coming out to the farm and featuring us in this story.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington Maryland Center for Health Equity Luminis Health
During these uncertain times, the Mona Center Urban Farm in Temple Hills, Md, has provided a great deal of reliability for both its volunteers and the community it strives to support.
09/08/2021
Join the Mona Center Urban Farm for our first public event, an Open House on Saturday September 11 from 11:00am-3:00pm. Join us for a fun day filled with farm tours, community painting activities, cooking demonstrations, Prince George's County urban farmers meet-up and marketplace, informational tables, and outdoor fitness classes.
This is an outside event and masks will be required at all times.
We hope to see you at the Open House this weekend!
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington PGC Soil Conservation District Camp Springs Civic Association Maryland Center for Health Equity
08/31/2021
On Saturday September 11 from 11:00-3:00pm, the Mona Center Urban Farm will be having an Open House with farm tours, informational tables, painting, cooking demonstrations, fitness classes, and an urban farmer meetup. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to stay updated or send us an email with any questions you have. We hope to see you at the Open House!
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
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The Susan Denison Mona Center is an integrated multi-services facility that provides critical resources to residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland. A partnership between Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Washington, the University of Maryland, and Doctors Community Hospital, the center offers low-cost and free services focusing on health and wellness, food access and nutrition, as well as legal assistance.
The Mona Center Urban Farm was planned in 2014 to facilitate community engagement, education, and fresh vegetable production for the neighborhood; majority of residents are low-income minority families. Construction was completed in September 2019, consisting of twelve vegetable beds, a pollinator garden, one shed, and a covered picnic area. We have volunteer hours weekly led by our interns, following COVID-19 social distancing guidelines including mandatory masks, 6 ft distancing, and limited numbers of volunteers. Tasks include general food growing education and upkeep, as well as discussions of healthy eating, cooking, and free produce for participants.All produce grown on-site is currently donated to the Catholic Charities Enterprise Kitchen to support emergency food programs in Washington, DC and Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, Maryland.
Catholic Charities provides the land, utilities, landscaping, and program oversight. Doctors Community Hospital provides lumber and labor to construct raised beds. University of Maryland provides faculty expertise, seeds and transplants, and hourly wages for student interns to manage farm production, events, and social media. We need additional financial support to supplement existing resources. The farm relies on individual donations and grants from state, federal and foundations to support operating and expansion costs.
Next steps include expanding and improving garden infrastructure as the farm grows to occupy the full 1/3 acre available. While continuing to provide emergency food, increased crop production may also be used in future Community Supported Agriculture and ProduceRx programs at the Mona Center.
Dr. Stephen Thomas (He/him):
Professor, Health Policy & Management
Director, Maryland Center for Health Equity
University of Maryland, School of Public Health
Meredith Brooke Epstein (She/Her):
Senior Lecturer and Advisor of Sustainable Agriculture
University of Maryland's Institute of Applied Agriculture
Meredith has served on the Mona Center Urban Farm's Advisory Board since 2019. Meredith provides guidance on all things crop-production at the Mona Center and engages in grant-writing to support the farm's activities. You can learn more about her and reach her at https://agnr.umd.edu/about/directory/meredith-epstein.
Nina Jeffries (She/Her):
Nina is a rising junior studying Environmental Policy and Arabic Language at the University of Maryland. Lynn and Nina are responsible for the day-to-day care of the farm. The main tasks involve watering, harvesting, weeding, and running volunteer hours. Any questions about volunteering should be directed to her or Lynn. She loves the work that she does, and looks forward to meeting community members once volunteer hours are open.
Lynn K. Brooks (She/Her):
“I started at the Institute of Applied Agriculture in the Fall of 1980. Regrettably, life got in the way and I was unable to complete the program at that time. After retirement from the corporate world in 2015, I have been able to pursue my dream of completing the program as a returning student to the Institute of Applied Agriculture. An internship is a requirement of the Sustainable Agriculture program and I was offered creation and building of the Mona Center Farm, in Temple Hills, MD. For the spring and summer of 2019, I worked closely with a team of wonderful people to get the Farm up and running. For Summer/Fall 2020 I am volunteering at Mona Center Farm to complete my Independent Study course. We are now in our first full growing season and the crops are thriving. I am anxious to engage my passion for sustainable agriculture in ways that will have positive effects in local communities.”
Briley Hebner (She/Her):
Briley is a recent graduate from the University of Maryland with a degree in Environmental Science and Policy with a minor in Sustainability. She has worked as the Social Media/Communications Intern since the spring of 2020, shifting her role to a virtual format since the spring. Her role is helping the team apply for grant opportunities, build our social media platforms, track harvest and crop data, and expand communication with the local community. If you have any ideas about community events or workshops you would like Mona Farm to host, please contact us through email or Facebook.
