Brady Farm’s coordinator helps grow new destinies

Lyons and Brady Farm’s work in the city of Syracuse’s southside to provide nourishment and new opportunities to residents struggling with food insecurity

By Kari Wilson, Katie Woods, & Lily Flanagan

Meet Jessi Lyons — Coordinator of Brady Farm, a non-profit urban sanctuary that started as a project from the Brady Faith Center. Officially starting up back in 2016, on the southside of Syracuse, NY, the mission of Brady Farm is to create a community; a community centered within a Syracuse neighborhood that has been suffering from poverty, stigmatism of negative connotations, and is the epicenter of a food desert. 

Lyons shared a story with us during our interview in which she told us a story of a teenage girl, no older than 16, who walked across her freshly plowed field within the first year of operation. When Lyons asked her what she was doing, that 16-year-old girl responded, “I don’t know why you’re bothering. Syracuse is buried under that soil and there is no hope for us.”

That moment opened Lyon’s eyes not only to how people viewed Brady Farm, but the community in which it was operating. The southside of Syracuse is known to be scary, dangerous, and filled with crime. In reality, this neighborhood is filled with loving people who have each other’s backs, and who are suffering from poverty. One of Lyon’s main points about what this farm means to the southside community of Syracuse is that it is a space where everyone is accepted, respected, and treated as human beings.

“Your ability to control (your own destiny) is your ability to grow it.”

— Jessi Lyons, Coordinator of Brady Farms

Brady Farm has several operations that help serve fresh food to the community. Using about four out of the six acres on the farm, Lyons and her team grow a variety of crops and try to distribute the goods at as low of a cost as possible, since most buyers cannot afford wholesale prices. Brady Farm also distributes boxes of produce twice a month to local schools to refugee families, who may be unfamiliar with traditional American canned food. This act allows families to receive fresh produce and put food on the table each night.

Brady Farm grows over fifty different items depending on the seasons. Another outreach program they take part in to serve their community includes the Double Up Food Back Program which serves the elderly and the disabled. This program’s model says that “every dollar you spend with your food stamps, you get $1 more back to spend on produce,” as Jessi explains. The farm serves the community in other ways by selling produce at food stands, accessible to all residents. The team also takes part in what they call the Rescue Mission, members who come together to prepare food for people who are unable to. Moreover, the farm has an apprenticeship program, where people who are suffering from unemployment or need a helping hand, can get paid for their services, and volunteer work with other organizations, Lyons explains. 

Within Syracuse, most residents are poor, and most neighborhoods are suffering from food deserts. In our conversation with Lyons, she brought up a great point explaining that “If you're poor, you don’t have a choice over your own destiny. Your health is dictated by food and you don’t have any control. Your ability to control that is your ability to grow it.” 

Brady Farm is a place of hope, new beginnings, and most importantly, a place where people can be seen and treated equally. Food deserts impact millions of people nationwide, and Syracuse holds some of the highest rates in the United States. Access to fresh food is expensive and unattainable for many people. Furthermore, food deserts create higher rates of poverty, and hunger, leading to disease, and health issues. When you are poor, “you can’t choose your own destiny,” Lyons said. Brady Farms is one organization that is providing fresh food to a community suffering from food deserts. However, the farm did so much more than provide access to produce — it created a community within a neighborhood that was once seen as desolate.