Who We Are
The George Jones Memorial Farm and Wetland Preserve (GJF), operated and managed by City Fresh, is an educational and experimental farm and nature preserve, and the home base of our flagship Farm Box program. Located one mile east of Oberlin College campus, GJF has an abundance of ecological wealth and opportunities for aspiring farmers. GJF has a long history of collaborating with Oberlin and Lorain County Community College students and professors, the larger Oberlin community, along with a wide variety of partners and individuals throughout Lorain and Cuyahoga counties.
Since 2024, GJF has opened its fields to aspiring farmers through the New Farmer Incubator, an innovative program which seeks to provide land access and resources to empower the next generation of farmers. We were built by this community, and we invite you to join us at the farm throughout the year for events, workshops, youth activities, hiking, volunteering, and more.
What We Do
We believe in the need and importance of establishing food resilience in our community. This means growing not only the foods that feed us, but the next generation of growers. Climate crisis, land access and transference as the average age of the American farmer approaches 60, and ensuring food access are front of mind as we imagine and experiment with solutions at GJF. We provide opportunities to utilize conventional organic and inventive methods for cultivation. Along with annual row crops, we employ perennial systems, high tunnel hoop houses, rotational systems, and fruit and nut cultivation among other practices. Working collaboratively, our efforts are supported and enacted by a network of students, researchers, community members, volunteers, and local institutions to build a more healthy and equitable local food system.
What We Offer
- City Fresh Headquarters– The home base of all City Fresh operations! Our Farm Box program begins at GJF when our farmer liaison brings back fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers. We then sort, count, and pack the produce for Fresh Stops, before bringing fresh, local veggies to you.
- New Farmer Incubator– Run by City Fresh and hosted at GJF, the NFI program provides new farmers with the land access and resources they need to realize their farming vision.
- Events and Programming– From sales and celebrations throughout the summer, to learning a new craft or skill, to connecting with nature and learning a little bit more about our native landscapes, GJF is home to a wide variety of events, programs, and activities for people of all ages.
- Host site for Oberlin College and LCCC classes– We offer projects each semester to students in Oberlin’s ENVS101 class, host the Oberlin Agroecology Practicum Course, and LCCC’s permaculture design course on site.
- Internship and Work Study Opportunities for Students– We offer multiple internships throughout the year open to college students, and work study through the Community Based Work Study Program at Oberlin. See here for current opportunities and details.
- Opportunities to connect and collaborate on educational programming– We would love to have your students, campers, or other groups out to learn and explore nature and science at the farm! Reach out to gjf@cityfresh.org for more details.
Volunteer
Individual:
To learn more about volunteering opportunities, and to stay in the loop about what’s going on at GJF, sign up here!
- Farm Fridays– Join us at GJF almost every Friday, April-October for open volunteer hours! Feel free to drop by for an hour (or four), and lend a hand with ongoing farm projects anytime from 2:00pm-6:00pm. Sign up to receive updates and details!
- Individual Scheduled Volunteering– Interested in supporting GJF, but not available during Farm Friday? For those who want to commit to regular volunteering at the farm, or interested in completing hours to meet community service requirements for a class or other program, reach out to our Farm Program Coordinator. We can work with you to set something up that works for your schedule!
Groups:
We invite groups of all kinds out to the George Jones Farm to help us with a variety of tasks, year-round. Businesses, sports teams, church groups, corporations, book clubs, educational institutions, fellow non-profits, student clubs, and more are all welcome to schedule service days with us.Tasks may include weeding, planting, and maintenance of paths and beds in our learning garden, working on projects in our production hoop houses, invasive species removal throughout the property, and more. We are happy to tailor projects to your group, get in contact with our Farm Programs Coordinator for more details!