Rid-All Green Partnership

Rid-All Green Partnership is an urban agriculture and youth education organisation operating in Cleveland's Kinsman neighbourhood. Co-founded by VOP community members, Rid-All has transformed empty, forgotten lots into a thriving urban farm — growing fresh produce to bring healthy, local food to area institutions and food-desert communities.

The organisation operates an impressive range of programmes: commercial aquaponics systems; composting ('Black Gold' soil production from food waste); the Rid-All Vegetarian Community Kitchen (opened Spring 2021); the Farmer Jones Indoor Produce Market; and a five-month Commercial Urban Agriculture Training programme. International initiatives extend their work to Ghana, Kenya, Belize and Israel.

Additional programmes include a Tree Nursery and Urban Carbon Drawdown Initiative, Veterans programmes and Youth programmes. The long-term strategy is to use urban agriculture to educate the next generation of Clevelanders to grow and eat fresh foods — and to operate their own food industry businesses.

Key co-founders include G. Keymah Durden III (environmental educator), Randy McShepard (co-founder of PolicyBridge), Marc S. White (regenerative specialist) and Dave 'Dr. Greenhand' Hester (master gardener).