Pa. Rep. Emily Kinkead commemorated Urban Agriculture Week by celebrating a $500,000 state grant awarded in February to The Bidwell Training Center Greenhouse as part of the Agricultural Innovation Grant Program.
Kinkead and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, along with other city and state officials, visited the site of the urban greenhouse and soon-to-be grocery store on Monday, July 14 to put their collective support behind urban agriculture.
They held a brief conference at the site of the future Bidwell grocery store, which officials said will sell affordable produce grown by the greenhouse. The room was filled with materials: pipes, various pumps and filters, and large boxes full of bionic grow lights. Those supplies, officials said, will be used to construct the new greenhouse, which will serve as both a center of food production and a learning center for aspiring gardeners to learn.
“This transformative investment is about much more than a greenhouse renovation,” said senior director of horticulture and agriculture technology at Bidwell Training Center Dr. Ryan Gott. “These upgrades and state-of-the-art technologies at the Drew Mathieson Greenhouse will grow fresh food to directly feed our local communities experiencing food insecurity; provide in-demand, no-cost training for our students; and serve as an exemplar of sustainable, energy-efficient urban agriculture.”
The funding comes as urban agriculture-related USDA grants were frozen in a wave of DOGE cuts early this year. Kinkead told Pittsburgh City Paper that while those cuts haven’t “trickled down yet,” she and other state officials are aware of the risk.
“I think the state, especially given that we haven’t completed a budget yet, really needs to take a hard look at how we utilize state funds most effectively to support the people who are going to be feeding [other] people,” Kinkead said. “Because SNAP’s been cut, and food access is going to be more and more limited. It’s going to fall on these kinds of farms to fill in the gap.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s current state budget allocates an additional $13 million to the Agricultural Innovation program, which previously operated on $10 million. A state-run website for the program noted that the Department of Agriculture received over $68 million in funding requests upon the rollout of the program.
Shapiro also issued a proclamation to the executive director of Grow Pittsburgh, Denele Hughson, celebrating the organization. The nonprofit has received nearly $157,000 in state grants in prior years to purchase supplies and extend their reach, according to a state press release.
Hughson said she, too, is concerned with DOGE cuts to grants funding urban agriculture.
“We’re all concerned,” Hughson told City Paper. “But we all have to band together and be very creative as we move forward.”
Gavin Petrone is a student at Point Park University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2025.
