Clark Baker on team to give veterans new mission growing sustainably grown food
For many U.S. veterans, finding fulfilling employment and acclimating back into civilian life can be just as taxing as military service itself. At the same time, America is facing a shortage of farmers, with almost 30% of growers over the age of 65, and fewer than 10% under the age of 35. The Heroic Food Farm is an initiative by Heroic Food and Ennead Architects/Ennead Lab, in collaboration with RAFT Landscape Architecture, to guide returning soldiers from "barracks to barns," with a new mission of battling the nation's farming crisis. Ennead recently completed the first phase of the master plan, which will transform an old farm near Hudson, New York into a facility for the country's first comprehensive residential farm training program designed exclusively for veterans.
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The Heroic Food Farm master plan, designed by a team consisting of Andrew Burdick, Emily Kirkland, Zach Olczak and Paul Scrugham of Ennead Lab and Rebecca Hill and Anne Clark Baker from RAFT, sprawls out over nineteen acres of an existing farm in Claverack, NY. The complex will include eight supportive housing units built to passive house standards as well as a community facility and a greenhouse. The new buildings will also feature design details that reflect the aesthetic of the existing farm and its pastoral vistas.
