Half a world away from what was once home, Tantine Mukonge bent over the soft earth and tugged at a ripe tomato.
The 37-year-old mother of four has worked on the Ohio City Farm since she first arrived in Cleveland in 2017 from a refugee camp in Rwanda, where she lived for 18 years after fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Here is more better because I [am] working, and I find some little bit of money,” Mukonge said of Cleveland. “But in the Africa, [it] was a little bit troubling.”
The five-acre farm, located just off the bustling dining and retail corridor of West 25th Street on Cleveland’s West Side, is a peaceful oasis in the center of the quick-paced urban environment: Crickets chirp among fields of produce and greenhouses and the soft chatter of Swahili and other languages.
“The things I like because I work here, they give me money. I take care for my kid and take care for myself,” Mukonge said. “And more nice here, so many people; I talk to many people that teach me to speak English.”
The farm is an enterprise initiative of Re:Source Cleveland, formerly known as Refugee Response. Executive Director Patrick Kearns runs the nonprofit, which supports thousands of refugees and immigrants new to Cleveland through youth mentoring, adult tutoring, sports education — and, of course, farming.
“The mission is really to make programs and business and employment opportunities that meet the needs of newcomers, meet them where they are,” Kearns said. “What I think is really cool about this place is [it puts] their skills that they have to practice."
The farm is currently in its fourteenth growing season and employs nine people, including refugees from Burma, Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They grow and sell 60,000 pounds of produce each year to 350 community members who receive weekly shares of the farm’s yield.
“The men and women that work here [have] amazing backgrounds; A lot of them grew up with agriculture, just kind of in their DNA,” Kearns said. “It’s an opportunity to provide a great, meaningful job for these folks.”
In the last seven years, the nonprofit has doubled its average farm wage to more than $18 an hour. Its goal is to reach twenty dollars an hour.
“It’s really investing in the quality of life for these folks that do this amazing work for us,” Kearns said.
But, as with any farm, there are seasonal limitations.
Each winter, the farm furloughs most of its staff, despite creative solutions like greenhouses to try to extend growing seasons.
Soon, a new $1.6 million facility backed by city, county and private funds will allow those employees to keep their jobs year-round — as well as provide new opportunities to Cleveland’s international community. It will also create five new, full- and part-time jobs.
The new Roundstone Pavilion will feature an interior wash and pack station, bathrooms and break rooms for employees.
It will also include a commercial kitchen and a retail market, which will give other food entrepreneurs like Congolese refugee Esther Ngemba, the founder of Furahi: A Taste of Home, the opportunity to expand their businesses.
“The work Re:Source Cleveland does in our refugee community is important because they come in and engage with us to get to know you as a human being and learn about your inspirations and goals,” Ngemba said.
Since the end of the Vietnam War, more than 30,000 refugees have made Cleveland home, Kearns said. This year, about fifteen hundred have resettled in the city — that doesn’t include Ukrainians and asylum seekers. He said the influx of new arrivals could be a path to growing Cleveland’s population, which has been on the decline since the 1960s.
“I think it's a way that we can really show the value of immigration, especially in these contentious times, that this is a real good, and we're able to make something work out of that," Kearns said. "It's something that's really, I think, not only unique in the city but unique in the nation we make happen.”
The new Roundstone Pavilion is expected to open next May.
