Supporting Urban Agriculture in Dallas

Born from a Hunger to Help

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the food insecurities that came with it, Kosmos Energy launched our Hunger Relief Program in 2020. The program grew to include initiatives in every country we operate in. Driven by ground-level employee enthusiasm and locally informed ideas, the program took a distinct shape in each country to address the unique challenges facing our communities. In our headquarters city of Dallas, Texas, we supported the good work of a group called Restorative Farms, a local non-profit seeking to create a self-sustaining farm system in food deserts within the Dallas. area.

Investing in Urban Agriculture

A major theme of Kosmos’ overall social investment philosophy is supporting local entrepreneurs, particularly in agriculture. 

By helping to develop an urban agriculture network in South Dallas, Restorative Farms looks to encourage job creation, job training and economic investment, as well as a new source of fresh, healthy and affordable food for the community.

Kosmos formed a partnership with Restorative Farms with the goal of supporting an entrepreneurship program that welcomed new growers into the local food system while working with existing growers to increase their profitability.

Kosmos’ support has enabled projects including:

• The expansion and refurbishment of the Hatcher Training Station in South Dallas in 2020.
• The acquisition of a new van and two “coldtainers” to expand the delivery radius for food pick-up and delivery in 2022.
• The acquisition and installation of a new TAPKIT, an ecological end-to-end hydroponic controlled environment agriculture (CEA) greenhouse capable of producing 3,000 mature heads of lettuce or leafy greens a week, in 2023 and 2024.

A Growing Partnership

Our relationship with Restorative Farms has grown beyond the Kosmos Hunger Relief Program. Our ongoing partnership has expanded to cover three key initiatives, focused on educating agricultural entrepreneurs and contributing to the sustainability of our local food system.

1. Hatcher Training Station Expansion

A self-sustaining non-profit farm, Hatcher Training Station offers apprenticeship opportunities for community members interested in urban agriculture and starting their own urban farms. Over the last four years, the Hatcher Training Station has continued to scale up and deliver even more job training and affordable food to Dallas communities.

2. Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program

Kosmos helped design the CSA program to create a new market for urban growers

too small to supply grocery stores by offering a subscription service for customers to receive weekly produce packs. The CSA Program enables local urban farmers to produce efficiently and at scale, includes job training opportunities and provides accessible, affordable produce to under-served communities.

3. GroBoxes

Inspired by the World War-era “Victory Gardens,” GroBoxes are backyard vegetable gardens that help contribute to food resilience in the community by providing immediate hunger relief and increasing individual access to fresh produce in food deserts.

Kosmos looks forward to continuing to nurture this thriving partnership, which is helping to create jobs and relieve food insecurity in our home city of Dallas.