Mableton seeks funding to support local agriculture

Photo by Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow 

By Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow 

The City of Mableton is applying to get funding for a Local Food System Planning grant to help facilitate the City Council’s effort to support local agriculture. 

At the October 28th City Council meeting, council members approved a resolution authorizing staff to apply for a “Local Food System Planning Grant” by the Atlanta Regional Commission and the local non-profit Food Well Alliance (FWA).

The purpose of the grant is to bring local governments, growers, and their communities together to ensure that cities are incorporating local food and agriculture into their plans for development, and to strengthen their local food system over the next 3-5 years, according to its website. 

Through the program, the city and Food Well Alliance work on a community engagement phase to gather residents’ input. Using that feedback, the Atlanta Regional Commission and Steering Committee developed a strategic plan to increase opportunities to access and grow local food in the city that won the grant. 

If selected, Mableton would receive a $100,000 implementation grant package, including a $75,000 grant and $25,000 in-kind support through the nonprofit’s Grower Resources. The city would have to put forward a $75,000 in-kind match, mostly through staff time anduse of city facilities to help host public input meetings during the grant’s planning phase. 

The city is proposing a Mableton community garden, expanded farmers markets and local food supply opportunities involving different community member groups. 

The city has not decided on a specific location for the garden, Emily Ryan, Mableton’s director of Sustainability, Greenspace, and Beautification, told the Cobb County Courier. “If awarded, we hope the community engagement and planning effort will help determine the best-fitting location for Mableton,” she wrote in an email. 

This would be the third time the city has applied to the same grant.  In the 2025 proposal shared with the Cobb County Courier, the city proposed relaunching a community-centered farmers market program, starting with a mobile market that rotates between council districts to give access to fresh food to all neighborhoods. The market would have included local growers and food businesses and brought partners such as the American Heart Association to offer nutrition education. 

“Many neighborhoods in the southern part of the city are recognized as fresh food or healthy food deserts, and residents would benefit from expanded opportunities to grow, buy, and access fresh foods close to home,” the city wrote in the 2025 grant application. 

The 2025 grant application proposed the creation of a certified community kitchen or food business incubator to support entrepreneurship and small food-based businesses; and creating community gardens in each council district; supporting existing school gardens; and building stronger agricultural education programs for students.

Mableton also proposed exploring the possibility of a composting pilot program and a Mableton Agricenter that would combine “teaching farms, training spaces, shared tools, food distribution, community gathering areas, and sustainability features.” 

“Past years’ proposals were similar in that we are requesting a planning and implementation effort to piece together Mableton’s existing agricultural network and expand its reach through various potential projects and ideas,” Ryan said. 

Ryan told the Cobb County Courier that the grant is fairly competitive. In the past, cities such as Austell, East Point and Alpharetta have been awarded this grant. 

The applicants will receive a response by December of this year. If Mableton does not receive it, Ryan said the city would explore the proposed projects, gather feedback from city leadership and the community, and consider next steps to complete them internally.