A partnership between Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) and Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI) is bringing together farmers and students to revive a local agriculture program. The partnership will offer something new to the Central Campus' agriscience program: garden space for farmers participating in LSI's Global Greens program and an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience working with them.
Refugee farmers and LSI staff gathered at the Agriculture Science Academy on the south side of Des Moines in early July to tour their recently planted crops. Farmers admired neat rows of produce as they pointed out what they were growing to other farmers in the program and DMPS staff.
The plots of land were originally grass before being mowed and tilled this spring to become home to 45 farmers’ crops. The new garden is tucked away behind Central Campus’ Agriculture Science Academy, which was previously home to the school's agriscience program. DMPS Director of Career and Technical Education Tascha Brown said the ag program was shut down in 2025 after its enrollment went from 150 students to 15.
“We’ve had continual decline in enrollment since the pandemic in our agriscience program, to the point where it just wasn’t even fiscally responsible to run it,” Brown explained. “We just knew that we needed to take a different approach.”
Brown said DMPS created a steering committee of students, teachers and agriculture leaders to reimagine the program. One of those leaders was a member of LSI, who brought Global Greens into the picture.
Global Greens is a pathway program for beginning farmers ran by LSI. It supports refugee and immigrant farmers by connecting them to land to farm on and helping them learn about U.S. agriculture until they're ready to start their own farm.
Brown said bringing this work into the agriscience program at Central would be a way to give students a global perspective on agriculture. For instance, a lot of Global Greens farmers grow food or use farming practices from their native countries, like foods that are used medicinally in their culture.
“Those are just things that we want our students to know about and understand that relationship and just connectivity to how cultures and civilizations operate because of the things that are taught and learned and done to produce healthy sustainable food,” Brown said.
DMPS students in the program will be able to work alongside farmers to learn about what farming looks like in different cultures. Brown said the program could also benefit the community because the garden is the first of its size producing fresh food on the south side of Des Moines.
“This is kind of a food desert area for families, and we do have a market, we have this land, we have a greenhouse, we have a commercial kitchen that’s not being used,” she said.
Brown said she hopes the new space will bring in more students while also supporting farmers and sustainable food production in the area.
Amy Joens is the community garden specialist with LSI who helps tend to Global Greens’ 23 gardens around the metro. She was part of the district's steering committee for its agriscience program and pitched the idea of partnering with Global Greens. She said a lot of DMPS students come from multicultural backgrounds, and a lot of Global Greens’ farmers have children that go to Des Moines schools.
“Knowing what the agriculture program was, kind of the makeup of that program, from my understanding, was not very diverse. So I think there’s just a lot of opportunity here,” she said. “Maybe this can help catalyze different kinds of students to be involved and interested.”
Joens said it’s a big opportunity for the farmers too. It can be difficult for urban farmers to access land in the city. Joens said Global Greens’ waiting list of farmers looking for garden space on the south side alone was long.
“Once they get started, they learn how to grow in a small space, they grow a lot of food,” Joens explained. “We just had a farmer earlier saying he and his wife fill up two fridges worth of food and eat off of it all winter, just from their 400-square-foot garden plot. So, people are producing a lot of food out of these little plots.”
She said opportunities like this are important because it can be difficult for beginning farmers to learn how to farm, especially if they’re used to farming in a different country. Farmers in the Global Greens program always start out growing in one of the gardens before moving on to a bigger piece of land, which Joens said sets them up to eventually start their own farm.
She said she thinks the partnership between Global Greens and DMPS will be a way for students and farmers to share part of their different cultures.
“For students to not only see what their families are doing, potentially in these garden spaces, but also for students that may not be as involved in growing food or not have the experiences in growing food through their families. Now they get to see it in the backyard of their school,” Joens said.
The garden has been in use for about two months, and Brown said the agriscience program will reopen in the fall with about 30 students enrolled.
