A farm, a classroom, and a neighbor.
South Atlanta Farms is two things at once, on purpose: a working production farm whose food earns revenue, and a youth workforce-development site where young people have held paid roles in the beds.
Two things at once.
A production farm
A five-acre working farm in Historic South Atlanta, independently run and rooted in the neighborhood. The farm grew 5,500-6,000 pounds of seasonal produce on a quarter-acre in 2025, about $24,000 in food value, with more than $22,000 of it going back into South Atlanta's food system.
A workforce-development site
In its first formal program year, the farm reached 263 people: 43 young people in paid workforce roles, 170 in farm-based programming, and 50+ adults trained as multipliers. These were paid roles.
Public land. Public good. Permanently.
The land question is the spine of this work. South Atlanta Farms is neighborhood infrastructure, and we treat it that way. The farm sits on the Purpose Built Schools campus, and we're working toward a model where this land stays a neighborhood asset for the south side, for good.
We grow food where people live. We teach where students already learn. We're building it to last.
The kids the farm feeds are the kids the farm teaches.
The farm sits on a school campus, a short walk from the classrooms and the cafeteria. The students who plant and harvest here are the same students who eat what the farm grows. South Atlanta already has the land, the schools, and the families to feed itself well. The farm is one way that happens.
It matters because one in five Georgia children faces hunger (Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap 2024). The research on farm-to-school programs has been clear for two decades: every study measuring dietary outcomes shows students eating more fruits and vegetables, and students in school-gardening programs score higher on science achievement.
A working farm you can work with.
The farm sustains itself by doing real work with real partners. Here's what you can bring the farm in on.
Produce
Per-pound wholesale for chefs, shops, cafeterias, and neighborhood institutions close to the farm. Neighbors can find us at Market in the Park in Grant Park this fall (dates on the Get Involved page).
Farm-hosted events
Host a gathering on the farm. Ask us about dates.
Educational programming
Field days and farm visits for students, built and taught from the beds.
Service days & tours
Bring a class, a team, or a crew: workdays and tours through the growing season.
From a quarter-acre to an acre and a half.
2025's harvest came off a quarter-acre. By 2028 the farm works 1.5 acres in production.
The farm is moving from being a program within Purpose Built Schools to being a partner alongside it. Anchored, supported. No longer carried.
South Atlanta Farms · 2026
Mark Boswell
Founder
Mark is Atlanta-rooted, and so is this work. He started South Atlanta Farms not to build a farm for himself, but to build the kind of place he always wanted to see in his own city: a place where neighbors grow food and economic value circulates back into the neighborhoods that built Atlanta.
The site is about the farm, not the founder, and that's the point. The farm is built to belong to the neighborhood: a working farm that lives like a neighbor.
From the beds
Be part of it early.
One that feeds, teaches, employs, and convenes.