36 - Heru Urban Farming
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Christa Hein: Hey there, welcome to the Farm Educator’s Roadmap. I'm Christa Hein, former nonprofit girl turned farm education entrepreneur. I've spent the last 30 years creating hands-on programs that connect people to the land, animals, and the traditions that nourish our daily lives.
If you're listening, you probably believe what I do - that farm education is needed now more than ever - not just on rural farms, but in suburbs, cities, and everywhere in between. In this podcast, you'll hear real stories and practical advice from farm educators all across the country. People who are creating change through their programs in creative and inspiring ways.
Whether you're dreaming about starting your first program, are already knee deep in your own farm education work or are just curious about how others are impacting their communities through farm education - you're in the right place. [00:01:00] Let's dig in.
Christa Hein: Hi there. Welcome back to the Farm Educator’s Roadmap.
Today I'm talking with Tyrean “Heru” Lewis, founder of Heru Urban Farming in St. Louis. An urban farm rooted in food access, education, and community empowerment. Heru started his farm while he was still teaching, and over the years has built something that goes far beyond growing food. It's really about changing relationships with food, health, and self-sufficiency. I am excited to learn more about how it all works on the ground.
Heru, thanks so much for joining us.
Heru Lewis: Hey, how are you doing? Thanks for having me.
Christa Hein: Absolutely. So, let's start at the beginning and get to know your path into this work. I've read that you come from a multi-generational farming background. Can you share a little about that and what that looked like in your family?
Heru Lewis: Yes, so I'm a fifth generational farmer. I grew up in St. Louis, but I remember when I was a kid, I used to go down to Paris, Texas. And my family I remember [00:02:00] having cows, and a lot of different corn, and sorghum, and things like that. And, you know, I didn't think anything of it. I just thought “Oh, it's cool. They got horses and stuff.” Right?
Now, I remember my great grandma… So, I was born in ‘82, so my grandma was 82 years old when I was born. So, she was born in 1900. And I remember when I was a kid, she used to have cabbage in her backyard, tomatoes, all these things, all the way up to her nineties. She lived to be 102. So, the old seeds were planted in me as a kid, and I didn't even know it.
And then as I got older, I got into what I'm doing now. I found out that my family won a lot of first and second place prizes in the state fairs down in Texas from 1952 or ‘53 all the way to ‘55 from any category: watermelon, corn, sorghum, maize. All these different things I saw in the archives, and they won first, second place. And back then they had the negro fair, and they had the white fair. The state fair was split back then, so they were in the negro fair. And I saw all the documents and I was like, “Wow.” Like, those seeds were planted in me, and I didn't even know it.
Christa Hein: Yeah. [00:03:00] So you spent a lot of years in education before starting the farm. Can you take us back to that time and what your work and life looked like back then?
Heru Lewis: Right. When I went to college, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So, you know, I was there and I thought about like, “Hmm, I like kids, I like sports. PE teacher!” That's what I came up with. So, I started being a PE teacher. I graduated in ‘06 from college. I worked at St. Louis Public School District, and I worked at charter schools as well.
That was a good experience. I love teaching kids, I love the youth. I was a basketball coach as well, and I taught flag football. So, in the school district I was at, they didn't have tackle football, so I coached flag. And yeah, I did health and PE. So, I guess that's like the foundation of what I do now, because I still work with kids and I’m still teaching and I work with health, yeah.
Christa Hein: Yeah. So then at what point did farming start to become something you were thinking about or feeling pulled toward? Was there a specific moment or a need that pushed you to begin?
Heru Lewis: Yeah, so it was accumulation of a lot of things. So, my dad had prostate cancer. He got it, and I remember they told me he had two years to live, but he [00:04:00] lived 12 years. He died in 2015. And I saw how he changed his eating habits and stuff like that. And I saw him lose weight and just change himself a little bit. And then also I had sleep apnea at one point, and I wanted to change some things about me. And I have a history of high blood pressure in my family, and diabetes, and stuff like that.
I went vegan at one point in time. I think it was 2018 when I went vegan. And I noticed I lived in a food dessert. We had a lot of Family Dollars, Dollar Generals, and gas stations around my area. You get a lot of processed food, frozen foods, and you might get lucky to see a banana or something at the cash register in the gas station.
I know in the St. Louis metro area, over 300,000 people in the area don't have sustainable, healthy produce within a half mile of their community. But I did have a grocery store, however, it was significantly different from the suburban counterparts. What I mean by that, when I went in that store, the local grocery store chain, I went in there and I was like, “Wow!” It was horrible. I couldn't even find any good produce, really. [00:05:00]
So, I was like, okay, let me go to the same grocery store, let me go to another part of town where it was at. Went there, it was better. So, I said, “Huh.” I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to drive to Clayton, and it is like a suburban area in St. Louis, a wealthy area to get food. So, I went there and I was like, “That's why she came here.” I mean, there was beautiful produce everywhere. I mean, you could close your eyes and pick up something, and you got a ripe pick. I mean, they had samples. Even something that's tedious as giving away free samples, they had that there.
So I thought, okay, let me go a step further. So, I went to another one further out in the suburbs, and that was even different. The structure of the building is different. Everybody knows what an old Taco Bell looks like, what an old McDonald's looks like, and people here know what a Schnucks looks like. So, I was like, that looked totally different. It had pillars on the outside. I went in, I saw people cooking sushi, people set up cooking, all different wine, and different areas. I said, “Why does this look different where I live?”
So, I wanted to do something about it. So, I just started growing food in my backyard, you know? And then I'm big on manifestation. I was sitting on my porch one day, I saw a vacant lot, and I was like, “I wonder how it feels to put some [00:06:00] food over there, have people eat it.” I didn't have a plan. So, I started passing out flyers, and I started bringing the community in, and then I started there and that was a 10,000 square feet community garden.
Christa Hein: Wow. So how did the farm grow from those first few steps, that first vacant lot into what it is today? Can you take us through your growth stages and how you stepped things up?
Heru Lewis: Yes. It was a blessing in disguise that happened, and a lot of trial and error as well. So, when I first started, like I said, I was passing out flyers in the neighborhood. I got to know some people. When you’re going somewhere new, you want to get involved in the community. So, what I mean by that is St. Louis could be territorial. So I wasn't from the area that I had been living at for five years previously. So, no one said anything to me.
So, I started passing out flyers. I met a guy named Mr. Ferguson. God rest his soul, man. He was like another father to me. But when I met Mr. Ferguson, I was telling him what I was trying to do in the neighborhood. He looked me up and down was like “Oh, he doesn’t look like a farmer to me.” I'm like, “Whoa, okay. Excuse me.” [Laughter]
But he was the first person to pull up when it was time to volunteer. He had a shovel in the back, he was like, let me [00:07:00] show you, young guy what to do. He was 70 at the time, but he introduced me to the whole community. He's one of those guys, he’d been over there for 30 years, he'd tell you what's going on and all that. So, he introduced me. So, that was the easy start.
So, when I started off, I was in three different incubators. And it's unheard of, because I was the only farmer in these spaces where you have brick and mortar companies, and just different types of startups, and I was the only farmer in there. So, I had to ask myself, “Do I even belong in this circle?” I didn't even know.
So, my first accelerator was called the Boston Foundation. That was for first time entrepreneurs. It was a $1,500 grant that allowed me to get fencing around my plot and some raised bed wood for some raised beds. But the one thing I got out of that was connections, and they taught me how to do a pitch deck when I wanted deliver something. So, I was doing pitches, trying to pitch what I'm doing, and I was winning pitch competitions.
Then I got into a program called We Power. That's for We Power Elevate/Elevar. It's for first time Latinx and Black entrepreneurs. I was in that program. That gave me media outlet, I found out who my MVC is, my [00:08:00] most valuable customer, and all those terms used for business. Brought me back to college when I got my master's in management, so, that refreshed my memory.
Boston Foundation happened in 2019. We Power happened in 2020. So, in 2020 also it was COVID. So, that was like a blessing in disguise per se, because everybody got health conscious, and everybody started advocating for fresh foods. And that's right at the time when I was just getting in. So, I rolled that wave. So, that's why I was getting customers, interviews on TV and social media and news outlets. So, I started getting my popularity up.
And then my last accelerator I got into was the University of Missouri St. Louis DEI Program. That was 2020 or ’21. That was my first significant grant. I got $50,000 in that. And that got me a greenhouse, a walk-in cooler, things of that nature, more connections and everything. Yeah, so, all those accelerators on top of support from local communities seeing my face out.
And then, like I said, I started that community garden, and then I got another space after that. I was [00:09:00] subleasing. So, here's a lesson right here. Watch what you do when you sublease. I subleased from a guy that was leasing from somebody else. He wasn't paying his bills and I was paying him. Then he got it repossessed. So, the guy repossessed my stuff, too. It was devastating. I just put a brand new hundred-foot-long greenhouse up, never used it. I built my walk-in cooler on the old trailer; I used it for one season. And when they sold the land, that was on the land that went with it. And I felt bad because I was like, come on, at least give me 30 days or that wasn't my fault. So, I felt so down.
But it's good to always be a good representation of yourself no matter where you are. So, remember when I said I was at the We Power accelerator, there was a guy that was on the board that was behind the scenes that saw what I was doing. He heard about my situation. He's like a philanthropist, and he bought some land. He gave somebody a call that knew me and said, “Hey, you want to come up here and farm up here? I heard about the situation. Free of charge this coming period, and you can grow, you can use my infrastructure, and everything.”
And that was a blessing. And that's where I'm at right now. This is a 250-acre property. Coming from a 10,000 square feet [00:10:00] place, to a five acre property, to a 250 acre property. We use 13 acres of it, and it's two other entities up here as well.
Christa Hein: That's amazing. That is fantastic. What a journey. So, I've read that you describe yourself as a soul farmer, which I love that, but what does that mean to you in the way that you approach the land and your work?
Heru Lewis: So, our culture, we have something called soul food. So, we’re doing soul food. That's like, basically, you cook from the soul, you cook it with love. You have family members come over, we all come together, we cook in the kitchen, and things of that nature. That's where I got that term from. Soul food, comes from that.
So, when you are a soul farmer, it is a play on words, too, because you're dealing with the soil, and you’re dealing with your soul. So, I believe you have to put good energy in something when you're doing it. So, just like when you’re cooking soul food, like I was always told when I was a kid, you don't want to eat from somebody's kitchen that has a bad attitude, because you'll get that energy in the food. And I'm not saying they’re a bad person, just at that time they were in a bad head space.
So, when I say that, I take it to farming, try to be in a good mood when you’re farming, right? [00:11:00] You want to bless the land. I do things like, I sage the land, I'm also a reiki master I give my crops reiki, right? It's all good intention. You want to pay homage to the indigenous people before you as well. The people that grew on the land, that meant something to them, right? So, you always want to pay homage to the people that's on the land that was before you. I think it all goes together. Yeah. As above, so below; as within, so without.
Christa Hein: Beautiful. I can tell already that you are probably a really strong mentor to the people that come through the farm, and so I want to shift into the education side. So, coming from an education background as a teacher, at what point did education become a part of the farm, or was that always a part of your vision?
Heru Lewis: That's always together. I got to have the kids involved. Yeah. I can't help it. It's crazy. When I first started, I did more teaching than I was growing food at the time. So, I created agriculture curriculum, and I have it for primary and secondary. And sometimes if I'm lucky, certain schools have sustainability classes, so they'll tell me what to [00:12:00] teach as well.
But I just go in, I do multiple things, it's like a multi-step thing. My first class is an introduction to me, my background, everything like that. And just, feel the temperature of the class. It's kind of like the first day of school, right?
Then I might come in again, I teach about a certain topic, whatever matches up to what they're learning in the school at that time and they co-exist. For example, they could be talking about ecosystems, or they could be talking about the food web. Even entrepreneur classes as well. I’ve talked at colleges, elementary, junior high.
So, what an elementary class would look like, we have this game where I play ‘Where did the food come from’? So, I have a chart up to say, is it a stem, is it a leaf, is it a seed? Is it something like that? And I put the food up there and they match it up with that. Or it could be a game where a kid lays down on a sheet of paper, and they draw their body, and they put their body parts on there. And they say, okay, what food helps that body part? And we connect it like that.
Sometimes I won't teach. I’ll bring in a chef, because a lot of people, when they hear stuff, for example, bok choy, no one really knew what [00:13:00] bok choy was initially when I was going to the class. So, I have a chef come in and make a dish so they can taste it on their palate. So, they can say, “Oh, okay, that's how that tastes.” So, I’ll do that. I’ll bring in a nutritionist; they'll come in and talk way smarter than me about what nutritional values are in there and things like that.
I might bring in an herbalist that'll come in and make medicinal tinctures with the kids. For example, we have a calendula flower, we'll take the flower heads, we put it in a mason jar, put a hundred percent virgin oil in there, let it sit for three to six weeks, and then you have an oil and that helps with psoriasis and eczema. And a matter of fact, I mix that in my shea butter when I'm making a shea butter. We might make comfrey oil, take a comfrey leaf when it's dried out, put that in an oil with a hundred percent virgin oil and then you can use that for sore bones, sore muscles. So, we teach stuff like that as well. So, it could look like any one of those things.
And with the colleges, they basically just want to know my journey and what my business structure is. So, it's more of a business type of conversation with the college kids. And also, part of that education is for the kids to come out to the farm as well and get their hands dirty. And some of [00:14:00] them might have a garden at their school; they might ask me to set one up. And yeah, that's basically it.
Christa Hein: So, with the behind the scenes of that, do the schools find you or are you reaching out to them?
Heru Lewis: Both. Well, now they reach out to me, but at first it was from my connections teaching, and I’d reach out to a school I used to work at or something. I'd be like, “Hey, this is what I'm doing.” They’d be like, “Oh, man, we would love to have that!” So, they'll do that. But now I get emails and everything.
I have a field trip every Wednesday. I pick Wednesday, because again, soul farming. Wednesday is ruled by Mercury, and Mercury is over communication. So, I try to do field trips on Wednesdays, and have my meetings and stuff on Wednesdays, and Zooms on Wednesdays.
Christa Hein: Nice. So, what are some of the key things that you really want people to learn, especially young people, to take with them and walk away with after spending time on the farm?
Heru Lewis: First, I want to get rid of the stigma that you connect slavery always to black people when they are farming. There's always a stigma. I know slavery was a hard time in America and across the world, [00:15:00] but we were farming and doing agricultural way before slavery. We taught people how to farm, so I want to make that clear. And you are what you eat. Like I say, as above, so below; as within, so without. So, whatever you eat, that's how your body is going to react to it. So just have them just a little health conscious.
I think everybody comes through me with a different task. I guess that's how I'm going to say it. For example, it's just like planting. When you come through me, I might have to water you, I might have to plant seeds in you, you might grow with me, I might have to pick your weeds, but everybody has a role in life. Like I say, my role might be something new for you here. I'm planting the seed. This might be something you already know and now I'm cultivating you. Things like that. So, I try to, you know, just meet them where they’re at.
But I just want to get that stigma out of their head, let them know some new things that they can try. And as a farmer, you don't have to be a stereotypical farmer. When they come to this class, no one will look at me and says he's a farmer. I don't have my bibs on, or whatever the image you have, or the straw hat, and all that with the boots - that's not me.
Christa Hein: So, are you doing [00:16:00] all of this work alone or do you have a team that supports you as well?
Heru Lewis: Yes, I have a team. Thank God for a team. Collaboration is always good. You can't do great work by yourself. That is key.
When I first started, I was by myself in the community garden, man. I worked from sunup to sundown out there by myself. Back breaking work, but I put my sweat equity in. I put my blood in, right? I put all that in.
Another thing, I’ve got two parts to this. I started off as an LLC. I switched to a nonprofit. The reason why is, because it's hard to get funding for LLCs for the work I do, and I noticed the nonprofit was the way. So, I had to do that; learned about nonprofit, I did my own nonprofit myself. I did all the paperwork myself. So that gave me the opportunity to learn that. And now I teach other people how to start a nonprofit, as well.
So, I had to do that. I had to get my board together and just set out different structures. I have somebody over community outreach now. I have a farming manager. I have a media person now, so yeah. So that helped me out a lot. It's hard to do media, outreach, all these folks… It's stressful, right? [00:17:00] You have to get a team.
And when you start something up, start small where you can handle it. When I first left my community garden and went to the one property that got repossessed for me doing subleasing, that property was like five acres. But I went gung ho. I mean, I had ten rows of tomatoes, like 20 rows of okra, all this stuff like, yeah, I'm going to feed everybody! [Laughter] No…weeds came, I had to harvest all this stuff by myself. I'm barely getting help coming over, and all this stuff. That was a disaster, because animals ate a lot of my food. I gave away a lot of stuff. It was bad, but I still did my thing or whatever, but I really planted too much. So, I learned that lesson.
Christa Hein: So, as a nonprofit, you are eligible for grants now, but I've heard that you've recently been dealing with some funding cuts. Can you tell us about how the funding cuts hit you and what changed both practically on the farm, but then just emotionally with the programs as well when that happened?
Heru Lewis: [00:18:00] So yeah, emotional rollercoaster. So back in 2022, I received a grant from the Land Capital Markets Access Grant. That was two and a half million dollars. That was for me to get my own land, my own infrastructure, do all the programs I'm doing now.
It had a give back aspect to it where I was going give, during that five-year program, I was to give up to 300,000 pounds away. I was going to have a farming incubator with 10 to 15 growers that would come out to the space, learn on the job training. Also, not just train how to farm, but know how to make value added product, how to do a business structure, all those things, not just farming, also the business aspect of it. We were going to adopt five schools with this program. A program that's consistent and builds economic stability for the people, the workers and things like that. A whole program.
So, it started off good, started off slow. We were allowed to do programs at first. And I did get some things out of it like a refrigerated van, a trailer, two BCSs, stuff like that. [00:19:00] I also went through the steps where I found the land. I had the land picked out. I did the National Environment Review we had to do. I did all the surveys and all the appraisals. And I made it to the last step…
Then the new administration came in, started cutting off DEI programs and it was on the freeze. Man, that was depressing. Got it started up again. Then another freeze happened, then got it started back up again, then another freeze happened. Then it started back up again. Then we finally got a termination letter to be complete, that was just a couple weeks ago.
So, during all these different trials and tribulations, man. Emotionally it is deflating. It's emotional, because you just got something like, okay, I can help these people, people that are underserved. I can do all these great things. And then it is like a punch in the gut, man. Now we're not being inclusive? Like, the whole point to this grant was to help people, to help them up, so they could be included, and now you switch it around and say I'm not being inclusive. So, it was hurtful.
I had to tell people about layoffs. It's hard to tell somebody you’re laying them off, even though it's not coming from you. That's [00:20:00] one of the hardest things you have to do. Look flat in their face and tell them that, right? Even though it's not, it's out of your control. You have to tell them.
We had to cut off a lot of programs. I still do programs now, but all those programs I was getting supported by that grant, I had to stop it. I had relationships with schools, and building these partnerships, and they make you look like you’re full of crap. Because you go in there and say all this stuff you’re going to do, even though this is how I feel about this cutting, and say “Oh, I can't do it now.”
Like I said, some of them I kept going, but I can't afford to do all of them. That affected people. People set their life and stuff up to be a part of this training program. They readjusted things, they might have to get another job, or work another shift, or just do something. So, we started all that. We started three weeks in, it stopped. So, they have to re-change and redo, restructure their life and stuff. Yeah, a lot of those things going on.
So, right now I'm in the process, I'm going to do an appeal, a NAD appeal. I have 30 days to do that. I’m going to do that sometime this week. Then after that I'm doing a lawsuit. I have some Legal Defender’s, they are representing me. By the way, I [00:21:00] won a federal case already last year in the state of North Carolina, and they told them to release my funds immediately, but they never did. Yeah.
Christa Hein: Wow. So, what has it looked like to keep any of those pieces of your programs alive without the funding? How have you managed to do that?
Heru Lewis: Well, there's two ways. I get other funding from other places. It's not significant to that, but it’s allowed me to get some things going. And I just got good people that's willing to like, “I'll just do it for free.” I go and talk to schools and I just do it for free on certain things.
Also, the people I had in my incubator program, seven of the fifteen, decided to stay anyway. They were like, “You still teach, we'll still come.” So, I just continued doing that even though it's hurtful to me. And, well, it's humbling and appreciative for me that they want to do that, because at the end of the program that we had for them initially, I was going to give them an acre of land a piece to work on. So, they're not getting anything out of it right now, and they still want to come and learn, and are still willing to be taught. So that's amazing. [00:22:00] So I appreciate that.
Christa Hein: Well, it seems like resilience, self-sufficiency, and staying the course feels like core themes in your story right now. You've talked about how those challenges have deepened your focus on self-sufficiency. What does that look like in practice for you now to have that self-sufficiency?
Heru Lewis: So right now, I'm creating more added value products so I can have some income coming. For example, my son has TJ’s Pickles; that does well. My daughter has Jada's Hot Sauce, and this year I'm creating a salsa Ty Ty’s Salsa. That's my oldest daughter. I'm going to do that so I can create income to come back.
To be honest, I'm going to stay away from federal funding, because that's not sustainable. It makes you not even want to be a part of the… USDA click, right? So, I'm really considering that I try to do more private funding, individual funding, fundraising, and don't rely on the government for funding because they can just snatch it away anytime they want to.
I also have been looking into endowments. I've been learning about endowments and stuff like that. So, I'm educating myself on that right now so I can create an endowment for us, so we can [00:23:00] have steady income coming in as well.
Christa Hein: This has been quite a journey. How has the whole journey of starting the farm, growing the farm, and then getting hit with these changes, how has that changed you personally as an educator, a farmer, and a leader?
Heru Lewis: I wouldn't say it changed me per se. It changed my mindset on, just, federal funding if anything. Don't put all your eggs in one basket type of thing. Let me tell you something, man. I've been through way worse stuff than this in life, and I made it through that. I mean, this is just another hurdle. You knock me down, I keep coming.
I’ve always been that person in my life that you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to do it. Even from when I was 30, they told me I couldn't run a half marathon; I did it just to prove my friends wrong. From in high school, someone tells you you’re not going to live to 18, right? All those things, I'm stubborn like my pops. They told him he had two years to live, he lived 12, yep.
Christa Hein: So, in the last few minutes that we have together, I always like to bring it back to our listeners who, some of them may be building their own programs in all [00:24:00] different kinds of places. For someone listening who feels called to this work, but doesn't have land or funding yet, what would you want them to know?
Heru Lewis: Wow, that's a good question. I'd say stay true to what you believe. If you don't see what you see right now in front of you, it's going to be there, because you put in what you give. You give what you get, right? Or you get what you give, however you want to say it.
And I think if you stay strong and put your effort into it, keep your manifestation on, keep your energy on it. Whatever you want to do, it’s a process to it. You have to think about it. So, they say without faith, you have to put in work as well. So, you’ve got to believe in it. Believe in the people around you. Even when days when you feel like it’s challenging, just keep going. It is going to happen. You’ve got to plant the seeds.
And look and see, there's all always opportunities there. For example, when I first got my first piece of land in the community garden, I didn’t know how I was going to do that. I had no funding, I didn’t have anything. I got a phone call one day, it was like, “Hey, you ever thought about the LRA program?” It was like, you get this land for five years as long as you grow food on it.[00:25:00] And I'm like, “Oh, I can do that. I’ve got $5.” So, I did that and I leased it.
Especially when you have urban cities that have got vacant lots and stuff like that, there might be some programs around. We had a program here called Mow To Own. If you had a vacant lot next door to your house that you own, you could mow it for two years and you own it.
So, it’ll be little stuff like that going around. I don't think every place has that, but even try partnering with someone. Collaborations, that'll work out, too. You never know what opportunities are going to be out there. Try volunteering at somebody else’s farm and places like that and see what they do.
You might find some information like, too, as well. There are always blessings in the skies for sure. But I would see what my local community has to offer about open land and something like that. If that's not the case, partner with someone.
Christa Hein: So, along the way. What have you learned about building something that's both meaningful and sustainable?
Heru Lewis: Well, if you believe in you and your mission, they will come. There's a lot of negative stuff that's in the world right now, and stuff going on, but there’s still great people around. [00:26:00] And they believe in you and what you're doing. People will help. It’ll be the people you least expect, too.
And they go off you, they go off the person, they follow missions, they follow stories, right? Tell your story. So, somebody's going to connect with that story. Similar people got similar stories, even unfamiliar people got similar stories. Tell your story, get it out there.
You build it they will come. It might not start automatically. Like I said, my first year I wasn’t really getting support, but when they get out there to see your face and see you're being consistent at what you're doing, they'll come. I get overwhelming help.
Christa Hein: Awesome. Heru, this has been such a great conversation. Hearing how you built something meaningful and how it came from not necessarily having everything figured out at first, but by paying attention, responding to what was needed in your community, and staying committed as things evolved. Before we wrap up, where can people go online to learn more about Heru Urban Farming and connect with you and your work?
Heru Lewis: All social media handles. I have Instagram and Facebook. It's [00:27:00] Heru Urban Farming. That's H-E-R-U, urban U-R-B-A-N, farming F-A-R-M-I-N-G. That's also my Gmail. That's also my website. So, find me, just put that in and you'll find out where I'm at.
Christa Hein: Awesome. Heru, thank you so much for sharing your story and your work with us today. To our listeners, if this conversation sparks something for you, or reminded you why this work matters, I'd love for you to share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. And if you haven't already, be sure to follow the podcast and leave a review so more people can find these stories.
Until next time, keep teaching, keep growing, and keep connecting people to the land in whatever way you can.
Christa Hein : Hey farm educators. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Before you go, I've got something special for you. If you're ready to build a farm education program that people are excited to book, grab my free guide, Five Simple Steps to Growing an In Demand Farm Education Program. It's packed with the same steps I used to [00:28:00] grow my own farm education business.
It'll help you get noticed, attract clients, and make an impact. Just head over to www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com/fivesimplesteps to get your free copy. It's quick, easy, and will make your programs irresistible. I can't wait to see what you create. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
