2025 NYC Urban County Committee

 

Join the next Urban County Committee meeting for NYC growers on Thursday, April 17th from 6-7pm! 🪻 Register here 🔗!

The Farm Service Agency Urban County Committee Meetings take place on Thursdays every other month from 6pm-7pm. You can either join in-person or tune in virtually via Microsoft Teams. These gatherings are free and open to all in the Urban Agriculture community! The New York City Urban County Committee, leads and supervises the work of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Brooklyn office. The FSA supports farmers through financial assistance programs including loans, emergency and disaster relief, and cost-share for organic and food safety certification.

Your local Farm Service Agency (FSA) also serves as a resource hub for farmers & community gardeners to learn about opportunities from urban agriculture partners, farm visits, and more.

At the April meeting, you will:


✅ Learn about the new NYC MOUA Urban Agriculture Data Explorer Hub with the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture


✅ Get to know the Urban County Committee & Brooklyn County Executive Director


✅ Get updates from community partners supporting urban ag in NYC

📩 For accommodations (ASL, translation, alternative formats), contact Mirem Villamil at (680) 895-0228 or ana.villamil@usda.gov by April 14.


Save the Dates for upcoming meetings:

  • June 12 | August 7 | October 16 | December 11

Are you an urban grower ready to engage with the FSA?

When can I vote? Here are the election cycle details. Brooklyn growers, it’s your turn to vote!

  • Voter Registration: ongoing until Sept 5, 2025 (use a mailing address to receive your ballot!)

  • Nominations: July - August 1, 2025

  • Mail your ballot: before December 1, 2025

  • Brooklyn is up for election in 2025!

    • Manhattan and Staten Island in 2026

    • The Bronx and Queens in 2027

Meet the 2025 NYC Urban County Committee

 

DK Kinard

Chairperson | Manhattan Representative

DK Kinard is a multi-hyphenate Urban Agriculture and Culinary professional whose main area of focus is Food & Social Justice Advocacy for the historically underserved and disadvantaged. A native New Yorker and multigenerational Washington Heights resident, DK is an experienced program creator & facilitator, farm educator, culinary instructor, classically trained pastry chef and more. Focusing on food security, environmentalism, city agriculture education, green skills job training, and establishing community garden spaces city-wide, DK has spent many years devoted to elevating city agricultural landscapes and the communities that steward them. Known in both the private industry and nonprofit sectors for her cross-industry experience, resourcefulness, unwavering determination and drive for community change, DK is passionate about fostering programs & initiatives that provide culturally positive and inclusive representation for people that are oftentimes under-resourced, underserved and misrepresented. DK Kinard is the Chair of the Urban County Committee for the USDA Farm Service Agency NYC, the FSA Manhattan Representative, an International Rescue Committee (IRC) Food & Agriculture team member, a state & citywide keynote speaker and task force member across multiple NYS policy and agriculture organizations. DK is the co-creator of a widely known NYC based green skills training program and continues to serve as a facilitator and collaborator with, but not limited to: GrowNYC, The Horticulture Society of NY, New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), New York Restoration Project (NYRP), GreenThumb, Bronx River Alliance, Cornell Cooperative Extension, The Mayor's Office of Urban Agriculture, NYS Agriculture & Markets and the Court Center For Justice Innovation.

Justin Baker (he, him)

Vice Chairperson | Staten Island Representative

Justin Baker is a Staten Island-based urban agriculturist, youth developer, and an anti-oppressive leader. Justin currently works as the Senior Coordinator of Eco-Hub Expansion/Youth Developer at Green City Force (GCF) where he leads the expansion of the Farms at NYCHA initiative across New York City and trains 6 Service Coordinators on skills in youth development, facilitation, anti-oppressive leadership, and community engagement. 

Justin had joined GCF in 2018 as a AmeriCorps member, becoming certified as a Farm Food Educator through culinary training on how to cook farm-to-table and use food as a tool for community engagement. Justin leads by example and received national recognition by being named TCN 2019 Corpsmember of the Year, the first GCF member to ever receive this award. After his term, Justin was promoted to Service Coordinator and led the Farms at NYCHA Initiative in Staten Island. Justin trained 5 cohorts and over 80 AmeriCorps members in Urban Agriculture, Horticulture, Green Infrastructure and Professional Development skills and prepared youth to excel in the Green sector and/or continue onto higher education. In 5 growing seasons, Justin harvested and distributed over 18,000 pounds of produce for Mariners Harbor communities; all whilst creating avenues for partnerships with local groups and organizations and hosting community events. 

Justin is also a local community leader stemming from experience with the Staten Island Justice Center, where he interned for the Staten Island Youth Court and Justice Community Plus program. In 2022, Justin began co-creating food justice curriculum and programming for high school and college students in Forgotten Foods Center, a local organization that trains the next generation of anti-oppressive and liberated leaders in Staten Island. 

Justin is committed to strengthening urban gardens and farms to exist as sites of food access and training urban growers to integrate in the neighborhoods they occupy, which are most impacted by food insecurity. Justin believes in liberation through agriculture and community, and he looks to liberate communities through food access, education, and training youth to be growers. Justin is eager to continue serving and educating people throughout Staten Island and NYC to show younger generations how powerful and important they are to the world!

Javier Marchand

Bronx Representative

Javier Marchand lives in the Melrose section of the Bronx, and is a member of the Rainbow Garden of Life and Health where they have the pleasure of running a small but vibrant Urban Farm.  Rainbow’s Urban Farm consists of about 14 vegetable beds and is also equipped with a 216 square foot High Tunnel which allows them to grow vegetables year round. All produce grown at the Urban Farm is donated to the community. The Urban Farm grows a variety of fruits and vegetables from Asian cabbages to sweet potatoes. I look forward to being on the Urban County Committee because I want to battle the ailments that good nutrition helps defeat.  Obesity and diabetes are all very serious health problems that can be corrected with good nutrition. I believe that Urban Farms can and are an important weapon against these diseases. Urban Farms can produce healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables. These vegetables are usually grown in an organic manner and can be made available to the communities they serve at no or low cost, especially in underserved communities. My hope is that the Urban County Committee becomes a partner with New York’s urban farms by first understanding what urban farms do and becoming active as to how to grow and improve them.  If the Urban County Committee can be a source of education, information and support for urban farms throughout the city we might become a model of how to battle food deserts and the implications they have on our people’s health.

Ciara Sidell

Queens Representative

Born and raised in Queens, Ciara (known to many as “Farmer C”) is a lifelong New Yorker passionate about growing food in educational spaces in NYC. Ciara is endlessly interested in engaging folks in learning and discussion around the intersections of farming, education, justice, community, and the urban landscape. They have farmed at the Queens County Farm Museum, taught with Farm School NYC, facilitated field trips with City Growers on Brooklyn Grange’s rooftop farms, managed Harlem Grown’s network of growing spaces, and currently stewards the Randall’s Island Park Alliance’s Urban Farm — an educational farm, designed completely with teaching and learning in mind. In all these roles, Ciara has forged partnerships with community gardeners and farmers throughout Western Queens, the South Bronx, and Harlem to distribute wood chips, pavers, and culturally-relevant seedlings free of charge to those with more limited access. 

Collaboration, equity, and community-building are at the crux of Ciara’s work on and off the farm. As a 2021 Forefront Fellow with the Urban Design Forum, Ciara joined a cohort of designers, planners, policy experts, and public health professionals to explore ways to foster food equity in New York City through the built environment. With the fellowship’s support, Ciara became a co-founding member of Share Shed NYC, a volunteer-led project dedicated to helping New York City urban growers share and access resources. Following extensive feedback sessions with growers, the group is in the process of identifying a suite of tools that seek to strengthen the sharing economy amongst growers in the city. 

In her spare time, Ciara can be found exploring Queens by bike and admiring green spaces and lush front yard gardens throughout the borough. Ciara is excited about the prospect of serving as a representative with the NYC Urban County Committee to further support and amplify the vital voices and critical work of those growing food in our city.