Carlos Avrard, strategic program director for Community enCompass, works on affixing the metal supports for a hoop house that is being assembled behind the Goodwill Industries of West Michigan’s corporate headquarters. Photo: Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-Mills

By Dave Alexander | Muskegon Chronicle
November 29, 2009

Community enCompass is taking the concept of the urban garden to the next level. Officials call it urban farming.

Playing off the successful half-acre garden plot that grew last summer on a vacant lot owned by Goodwill Industries, the Christian community development organization in Muskegon’s McLaughlin Neighborhood has created the McLaughlin Grows Urban Farm at Iona and Sophia streets.

With the help of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County and its Richard and Marilyn Witham Fund, the urban farm is adding “hoop houses” to extend the growing season year-round. The idea is to create business opportunities during economically tough times.

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