In years past, a cold and blustery March day could mean little to no work being done at Ohio City Farm.
But as hail and 75 mph winds whistled through the five-acre urban farm on Cleveland鈥檚 near West Side, a handful of farm workers ducked inside a new, 4,000-square-foot facility for their lunch break after hours of preparing the fields for spring planting.
"It's good because now we are not feeling cold," said Tantine Mukonge, the farm's supervisor. "We are eating lunch inside the house we have a kitchen."
Mukonge has worked at Ohio City Farms for several seasons since settling in the U.S. from a refugee camp in Rwanda, but it鈥檚 the first winter in the new Roundstone Pavilion.
The $1.6 million facility, backed by city, county and philanthropic funds, will allow the farm, and those it serves, to operate year-round.
"For 15, 16 years, we've had no indoor facilities," said farm store and kitchen coordinator Lenny Luckadoo. "Our farm crew would be furloughed in December ... But with this facility, we'll be able to provide some amount of year-round employment."
The farm is an enterprise initiative of the nonprofit , formerly known as Refugee Response.
In a typical growing season, spring through fall, Ohio City Farm employs newcomers from countries like Nepal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at more than $18 an hour.
"The farm has been a great way for people who come from an agricultural background from the country that they did come from," Luckadoo said. "It's been a great way to find a job in a place where there might be language barriers."
The farmers grow and harvest produce for the 300 members signed up for the weekly community-supported agriculture share, or CSA.
The high-demand CSA sells out nearly every summer. Now, that popular offering is expanded. This year, because of the farm鈥檚 first-ever permanent facility with space and warmth to wash and pack produce, 30 members enjoyed a winter CSA as part of a trial run.
"We have greens and roots in the tunnel through the winter," Luckadoo said. "What we had this year was apples, mushrooms, a larger variety of greens, winter squash."
This farm also offered ethnic meal subscriptions.
"What we tried to do this year is bring some of the culinary knowledge that our team had," Luckadoo said. "So, we did themed weeks every week. We had a Lebanese week, we had a Congolese week. We had South Indian week."
They plan to expand those offerings next winter and beyond.
For now, the Roundstone Pavilion is used primarily for indoor washing and packing, which previously was done in a shipping container on the lot, but it also includes an entrepreneurial kitchen for new business owners like Miroslav Parashikov.
"I've been involved, you know, with cooking, like, pretty much all my life, you know, at home or for the business," Parashikov said, bent over a basket of sizzling pierogies.
Parashikov, who is originally from Bulgaria, operates the Pierogi Bucket, a ghost kitchen offering Cleveland鈥檚 favorite Eastern European dumpling with a variety of sauces.
"This kitchen's like a real opportunity for people to actually come in and like work on the ideas, or even to, if they have a setup ready 鈥� just come get the license and, you know, you're on your way," he said.
The farm will also soon open the Glick Farm Store at the Roundstone Pavilion, which will sell locally grown produce, dairy, eggs and bulk grains, as well as prepared food and tools for gardening and cooking.
Luckadoo said Ohio City Farm鈥檚 expansion comes at a critical time to invest in enterprises that uplift immigrant communities.
"It鈥檚 really important for somebody who might not feel at home in a lot of job places," Luckadoo said. "And I think this is a great opportunity to be somewhere that pays a living wage, feels like home, with people who want to work with you."
