Cleveland’s City Hall is seeding plans for a refreshed and expanded Summer Sprout program after years of discontent among urban gardeners.
The annual program has a new funding source and more money available. And Mayor Justin Bibb says fixing some longstanding flaws is a step toward achieving one of his second-term priorities: addressing food deserts and fresh food access in the city.
“I want to apologize on behalf of the City of Cleveland because we have failed you, year after year after year, with too much damn red tape, too much of bureaucratic hurdles,” Bibb said to a gathering of urban gardeners last week, a declaration that was met with a chorus of “yes” and “thank you” from the audience.
Through the city’s Summer Sprout program, neighbors can turn city-owned vacant lots into community havens for growing flowers and produce. The program, through a partnership with Ohio State University Extension, provides soil testing, seeds, starter plants and education to residents trying their hands at gardening.
The program hasn’t always lived up to its promise. At the meeting, gardeners complained about communication with the City of Cleveland. One said city workers recently removed new mulch she’d put down for this summer’s garden from the lot. Others said getting access to land and water in order to grow fresh food was too expensive and difficult.
“If you can solve the water meter problem for urban farmers and community gardeners, then we’ll send you to the Middle East,” one urban gardener told Bibb at a town hall at the Cleveland Foundation last Tuesday. “Cause that will be a piece of cake.”
Bibb laid out three changes going forward. The most significant? City Council put $250,000 into its 2026 general fund for Summer Sprout, which will replace a smaller federal source of funding that often placed limits on how the money could be used.
The city is also moving the program out of the Community Development department, which has seen significant leadership turnover in the past year, and into the Public Health department. And it’s gathering feedback from gardeners to try to restore trust in the program.
The city started by opening lines of communication at the meeting with Bibb. But the full effects of the other changes are unlikely to be felt until 2027. This season, the program will be jointly managed by both Community Development and Public Health before fully transitioning next summer, said Zainab Pixler, the city’s local food systems strategies coordinator.
The program will still primarily rely on the same federal funding source this summer, since the general fund money isn’t available yet. And contract negotiations with Ohio State University Extension for this summer’s program were still ongoing as of last week, Pixler said, delaying gardeners’ ability to access their land, water and plants. Contract negotiations also led to delays and confusion last year.
“What’s possible this season, unfortunately, is not as robust of a program as in years past,” Pixler said. “But I’m hoping that that means we can continue to work through the challenges and set ourselves up for a thriving program in the future.”
Pixler said she’s hoping to pass out land and water permits soon even if the contract with the extension center, which provides seed starters and plants, isn’t signed. She said she is finalizing a date this spring for gardeners to pick up their permits.
Bibb told community members that Summer Sprout would begin earlier in 2027.
Summer Sprout gets funding boost
The Summer Sprout program is 50 years old. At its peak, about 190 gardens blanketed the city.
Now, Pixler estimates there are between 70 and 140 active gardens.
The program shrank as the city dealt with funding challenges and a shortage of staff to manage it, Pixler said.
The federal funding prohibits residents from selling any food they grow on the land, which “stifles community gardens,” said City Council Member Nikki Hudson, who introduced the proposal to add general fund dollars for Summer Sprouts to the 2026 budget. It also requires each garden to be tested for lead, and if a certain amount is identified, the gardener must put in raised beds. That’s an expensive requirement that doesn’t allow for creative solutions, Pixler said, and it led some people to stop participating.
“Folks have had challenges with implementing raised beds, so they took a season off,” Pixler said.
The city’s funding will cut back on these requirements. Pixler said she plans to researching “creative” options to grow food safely if concentrated lead is found in ground soil — such as integrating fresh clean soil into the land — but does not yet know what would be safe and effective.
Funding the program with city money will also cut away some of the bureaucratic challenges slowing down contract negotiations with the extension center, Pixler said. Plus, it’ll add about $130,000 to the total budget, which could help farmers with the cost of running a garden.
“The money will be going to the same services and materials that y’all have been expecting and that you deserve, including the tilling services as needed, the plants, the seeds, the starters, potentially water,” Pixler said at the community meeting.
Urban farming as a whole in Cleveland will also receive an investment from the Cleveland Clinic, which recently contributed $100,000 to the community initiative Food Access Raises Everyone to support local farmers and gardeners in town.
Pixler said the city is also looking to expand her team to support Summer Sprouts when the program fully transitions into the public health department next year.
Urban farming as a whole in Cleveland also received an investment from the Cleveland Clinic, Bibb told gardeners at least week’s event. The Clinic recently contributed $100,000 to the community initiative Food Access Raises Everyone to support local urban farmers and gardeners.
“By supporting solutions at the ground level, we are helping ensure those most impacted have the tools to build a healthier, more resilient Cleveland,” wrote Vickie Johnson, Executive Vice President and Chief Community Officer at Cleveland Clinic.
Easy access to land, water essential for community gardens
In the town hall, urban gardeners said getting – and keeping – access to land and water is one of the most difficult parts of the Summer Sprout program.
Summer Sprout gardeners who are using city land typically sign year-to-year leases. But gardeners who have been working on farms for years or even decades are often ready for more commitment, Pixler said.
“The city is exploring different pathways for long-term ownership or leases for those folks that are interested in that,” Pixler said.
Getting water to a piece of formerly vacant land can also be tough, several gardeners said. Summer Sprout farmers use fire hydrants at a discounted rate. But the city also leases land from its land bank to for-profit urban farmers, who have to pay full price for the hydrants. And after five years, they lose access to fire hydrants and have to set up plumbing on their land – which one farmer estimated cost her $14,000.
Pixler said investments like this would make more sense if urban farmers owned their property instead of leasing it from the city. But the land bank currently won’t sell land for urban farming. She’s trying to change that.
“It doesn’t make any financial sense to invest up to $15,000 in land for a permanent connection and meter that you don’t own,” Pixler said.
