Margaret Morgan-Hubbard, CEO, ECO City Farms

We grow great food, farms and farmers!

To find out more about ECO City Farms, see www.ecocityfarms.org

’Neighborhood Design Center is without a doubt one of our most prized partners. Their unique set of services cannot be secured anywhere else, at any cost. They do not merely work as consultants with a particular design expertise, but act as allies and collaborators as well. They help us think through and improve what we do.

Few of our partners are as versed in all that we do and need as the Neighborhood Design Center. As a not-for-profit urban farm, we have very specialized design and development needs. There are not many planners or designers who understand our needs or how to address them. Our partners must take into account the complexities of the ways in which we interact with the natural and built environments. They also need to understand the context, county and culture in which we operate.

Over the past few years, NDC has helped us think about and develop our two farm sites in Edmonston and Bladensburg. We have come to think of them as part of our visualization team. They have helped us literally picture our properties and what needs to be done to fully utilize them. They have helped us share these pictures with everyone from our landlords, to our Board and funders, to the County permitting offices and our neighbors. They have brought a number of talented community experts to help us capture our collective ideas on paper and digitally.

NDC staff possess both the technical design skills and the people language required to work in communities. They have become highly valued translators between various parties who could not otherwise communicate with one another- – such as non-profit leaders and staff, elected and appointed officials, technical experts and bureaucrats. They literally served as mediators in a conversation between us and the county permitting office, and showed us how to more effectively communicate our ideas and needs in a language others could understand. Like many groups in Prince George’s County, ECO City Farms is very indebted to NDC.’