Farmin’ In The Hood 2: UFG Employs Ex-Cons, Addicts, And Neighbors, Transforms Blighted Neighborhood From The Inside Out [Video]

The Urban Farming Guys (UFG) has uploaded a new video to the nonprofit organization’s YouTube Channel: Farmin’ in The Hood 2. Farmin’ in The Hood 2 gives an update on the powerful transformation the nonprofit organization has made on an inner-city neighborhood by using community farming to empower the local residents.

“The Urban Farming Guys are a group of self-proclaimed ‘revolutionaries’ made up of 20 families who decided to move from suburbia to the inner-city of Kansas City, MO to start a community urban farm and sustainable living experiment. The families all bought houses within a five block radius of one another, aiming to provide food to their neighborhood at an affordable price, reduce crime, create jobs, alleviate poverty and restore dignity to what is considered to be one of the most blighted neighborhoods in the city,” according to a report in the Triple Pundit.

“Phase One. Three years ago, we asked the question, ‘Can it be done?’,” the Farmin’ in The Hood 2 narrator begins, “We posted a video with no plan, no money, just the seed in our pockets…”

The UFG moved into one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the country with the goal of transforming the area into a sustainable community from the inside out. Their goal was to grow all of their own food, create their own energy, and make jobs for the jobless and the homeless in the neighborhood. Farmin’ in The Hood 2 reflected on those earlier goals, and showed that in a relatively short time, a neighborhood can be utterly transformed. Farmin’ in The Hood 2 explained that in three years, the UFG enrolled the help of children, ex-cons, the homeless, and drug addicts and created a sustainable area deep within the inner-city neighborhood.

Now, as explained in Farmin’ in The Hood 2, the UFG have a vision to raise 31,000 dollars in 31 days to create a space for innovation not far from where their community farm is located.

“This Spring we made a ridiculous offer on this building right in the middle of all of our urban farm lots — a block from our base. And we now own this beauty Debt free for under $30,000,” UFG announced about the MakerSpace project. “This summer we have worked our hearts out to get it ready and we are almost there.”

“UFG is launching a Huge Inner-city MakerSpace that will change the game for the youth of Lykins neighborhood. Everything from Urban Agriculture to Robotics and a huge basement full of Aquaponic growing,” they announced on the fundraiser page. If UFG can achieve their goal, all funds will be matched. So, they released their MakerSpace video, and then later again as the Farmin’ in The Hood 2 video.

Within just hours, the UFG’s Facebook page announced they had already raised another 3,500 dollars. The UFG’s Facebook page has almost 50,000 likes. The question is no longer, “Can it be done?” They have proven that it can be done. Farmin’ in The Hood 2 is already making its way around social media, so the question now is, “How quickly can it be done?”

[Photo via UFG’s Facebook]