MOUNT HEALTHY, Ohio – It’s called Tikkun Farm and it’s a 3.5-acre non-profit farm founded in 2015 by Rev. Dr. Mary Laymon and her husband, Greg York. The farm sits in the middle of the old, congested neighborhood of Mount Healthy in Hamilton County. What was once a dairy farm in the early 1900s and eventually became a junkyard, has been transformed into a farm which supports needy families in this community.

“Through cleanup and diverse farming practices, wildlife has returned and the soil has been replenished,” Laymon said.

Laymon and York are trying to help the community by providing ministry and food on their property. Over the past years, the number of children and adults served by Tikkun Farm has grown significantly.

Tikkun is a Hebrew word meaning “repair” or “restore.” It’s the goal of this couple to restore healing and help build relationships through its many offerings, whether it’s tending to animals on the farm, practicing yoga, learning how to prepare a dinner meal or simply working in the gardens or small orchards. There’s a small orchard at Tikkun, as well as a large greenhouse and a large pond.

“Our farm helps people become the authors of their own stories by integrating care experiences for all ages through our many programs,” Laymon said. “We offer a community of people here to help them establish trust and help restore healing.”

Whether she’s serving as the pastor of St. Simon’s of Cyrene Episcopal Church in nearby Lincoln Heights or mentoring those at Tikkun Farm, her goal is the same – teach others to love and respect each other and the land.

“As you get to know us, you will notice we have a lot going on,” Laymon said. “We feed families and heal souls. We train young people for jobs, we participate in yoga classes, repair the farm fences, work in the garden, practice meditation and more. Sometimes we simply sit and engage in reconciling conversations about race.”

While Mount Healthy isn’t considered a food desert, there is a need for food among many in the community. Tikkun Farm receives food donations from stores such as Aldi, as well as from farmers in the county. Then, the farm feeds the community through its Nourishing Families Program. Visitors may shop one day a week on Tuesday, Friday or Saturday and select the food they need. It serves the people much like a food pantry.

“We have our market and people can come from all over the city and pick up whatever food they need to support their families,” Laymon said.

Residents of Mount Healthy can sign up for crockpot meals, a curated meal bag with all the ingredients for an easy-to-prepare meal.

The couple offers cooking classes to show visitors how to prepare nourishing meals from fresh fruits and vegetables that are either grown at Tikkun Farm or donated by stores and farmers.

“None of the food waste from our Nourishing Families Program ends up in the landfill,” Laymon said. “Instead, it feeds chickens, worms and soldier flies. Soldier fly larva compost food waste in the most efficient way possible, growing into nutritious, protein packed food for our chickens, ducks and turkeys. We’re expanding our composting program by inviting neighbors to bring in their food waste to the farm.”

Thanks to a generous grant from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Tikkun Farm extends its teaching into the Mount Healthy City Schools.

“We’ve created a comprehensive curriculum of hands-on experiential learning activities for every grade, connected to their core curriculum goals,” Laymon said. “These activities include raising baby chicks, seed starting, compost systems, testing water and soil quality, establishing pollinator gardens, removing invasive species and more.

“We invite high school seniors to participate in a monthly permaculture curriculum. The students interested in this work may apply for our Environmental and Urban Agriculture Job Training program after graduation. This program provides students with the skills necessary to pursue work in landscaping, hydroponic and aquaponic growing, urban gardening and more. In partnership with 80 Acres, Brick Gardens and other employers in our city, we’re creating a school-to-work pipeline for the young adults in our neighborhood.”

This farm may be “landlocked” on just 3.5 acres, yet there’s plans for more growth.

“We really want to expand and be able to help young people have a culinary art experience so that it might lead them into something like culinary art school, say, at Cincinnati State,” Laymon said. “We eventually want to expand that even further to offer training in the building trades like electrical work, plumbing, carpentry and welding. These are areas where there’s actually a huge need for more artisans. Again, we do more than one thing. We seek diversity for stability, resilience and abundance.

“Some of the things that are coming up for our future programming include an expansion of our environmental education program. We’re going begin launching a job training program for youth in our neighborhood and that’s going to begin with an urban farming focus and an environmental focus, so we’ll be training young people to get jobs at places like 80 acres and other indoor farming facilities in the city.”

The farm has a variety of animals and families across the Cincinnati area that sign up for animal care. There are the tasks of putting the Guinea hens to bed, collecting eggs, refilling water bowls, feeding the pot-bellied pig, fostering baby chicks in the spring and leading farm tours for visitors. During the spring, summer and fall it’s common to see visitors of all backgrounds planting, weeding, mulching, tending and harvesting the land.

“We believe that nature heals and restores us,” Laymon said. “In every corner of our farm, one will discover habitats that invite human engagement with nature.”