Urban Farm: Las Milpitas de Cottonwood
Tucson Small School Project and City High School established a partnership with the Community Food Bank in 2011 to expand the City High Garden into a full-fledged community farm. Las Milpitas de Cottonwood Community Farm is a community resource, open to all: families, schools, and others who want to adopt a plot or get involved in any number of ways. The farm lies between South Cottonwood Lane and the Santa Cruz River, south of 29th/Silverlake.
During the 2011-2012 school year, a group of City High School students participate weekly at the farm with VOICES Instructor Megan Valanidas as part of City High School’s Extended Day Learning Program. The group is growing their own organic vegetables and learning how to teach their farming skills to peers and community members. All City High School students and staff also visit the farm to incorporate food and farming into different subjects, from culinary arts to local history.
Upcoming EVENTS: 
- Volunteer Southern Arizona hosts a Global Youth Service Day event at Las Milpitas on Sunday, April 22.
- Weekly Community Volunteer Days organized by the Community Food Bank, Tuesday and Saturday mornings 8am-12pm.
Farm PRESS:
- YouTube video: “Las Milpitas de Cottonwood Community Farm”, posted by Healthy Pima, January 30, 2012.
- Photo album of Las Milpitas Inauguration Celebration, January 21, 2012.
- Read Carrie Brennan’s remarks made during the Inauguration Celebration.
- “Down on the Farm”, CITYSCAPE Newsletter, December 2011.
- Las Milpitas has its own facebook page!
- “Fresh Efforts: The Food Bank and City High School Team Up to Build a Southside Urban Garden”, Tucson Weekly, July 14, 2011.
- “City High Garden Grows Up”, Facebook photo album.
- Read a website news post and listen to a student radio story about City High School students involved in the Food Bank’s Youth Farm Project.
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A BIT OF HISTORY: City High School began leasing the garden location from Pima County in 2006, following the Farmacy Project’s involvement in the land. City High School students and staff have been active at the site in a number of ways: building water harvesting swales, tree planting, and growing vegetables, herbs, and native plants. City High School students were responsible for the land each year as part of the school’s City Works gardening class from 2006-2010, taught over the years by Elliott Lax, Mike Spielman, Michael Herzog, and Jennifer Kinser.
An article in the Summer 2007 issue of our CITYSCAPE newsletter sheds a little light on City High School’s history with the land …
