Pa. Rep. Emily Kinkead speaks during a press conference at the site of the future Bidwell grocery store on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Mars Johnson/City Paper)

By Gavin Petrone, Pittsburgh City Paper

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.”

(For more of the story, visit Pittsburgh City Paper.)

Gavin Petrone is a student at Point Park University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.