On February 4, 2025, we hosted Jennifer Hoban from the Barrett Centre for Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture to share about incorporating urban agriculture in the K-12 setting. Jennifer shared her expertise on how educators can integrate farming, food literacy, and sustainability into their classrooms, fostering a deeper connection between students and their food systems.
This webinar reinforced the huge potential of urban agriculture in K-12 education—not only as a tool for food literacy but also as a way to engage students in hands-on, interdisciplinary learning. By making food education accessible and interactive, we can help young people build healthier relationships with food, the environment, and their communities.
Jennifer also highlighted their online Knowledge Centre with free lesson plans and teaching resources to support urban agriculture education. Topics include:
Anyone can sign up to access these free resources, along with additional tools like the Community Forum and Ask An Expert. These valuable resources are especially useful for those involved in urban agriculture, sustainability, and community growing.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recording below:
About Jennifer
Jennifer Hoban works as the Community Engagement Coordinator at The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture at Durham College. With many years of in-field experience in mixed-use, market garden farms, Jennifer helps to facilitate community education and on-farm experiences. Academically, Jennifer is focused on the food system through a humanistic lens, examining the interactions between actors and drivers of systems change; exploring how design can improve those interactions. Currently, they are a graduate student at OCAD University in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation Masters Program and have their undergraduate degree from Trent University in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, and Environmental Studies and Resource Management.
To learn more about The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture, please visit their website.
