UPG Garden Centers on 6.5 acres will become epicenters of change in Miami!
Leader
Sam Van Leer
Impact areas
UPG Garden Centers on 6.5 acres will become epicenters of change in Miami!
They will provide the resources and know-how needed to grow food in the city, especially in food deserts. Low-income families living in apartments will each have their own 70 sq. ft. raised-bed organic Family Gardens. Food forests will allow access to fresh fruit and other produce in public areas. Composting will provide high quality soil and amendments. Nurseries will provide a flow of fruit trees, heirloom vegetables, and native species for projects.
The Neighborhood Transformation program will help homeowners, businesses and public spaces plant eatables and natives as landscaping.
UPG Volunteer Staff and Volunteers will do the majority of the site preparation, but eventually the families themselves will be responsible for their own gardens. Outcomes include organic food for better nutrition, exercise from gardening, cost savings for fiscal sustainability, and protecting Miami from Sea-Level Rise (SLR) through reduction of pollution caused by chemical farming and long-range transportation. Natives will provide food and habitat to wildlife. As the Garden Centers grow we plan to offer Family Gardens to 500 families (35,000 sq. ft. total). Nurseries will expand to at least 20,000 sq. ft., including a large shade house. Fruit trees will capture carbon from more SLR protection and provide shade for walkers or mountain bikers.
UPG is creating two Garden Centers in parallel.
Negotiations began in 2010 at Amelia and 2011 at Lemon City. Facilities will expand as resources allow, and open at a basic level by Summer 2014.
Food is among the most fundamental human rights, yet thousands of families in the Miami area live in food deserts. The only food they have access to is fried fast food and corner-store snacks. This high-fat and high-sugar diet is killing them.
We are working to change this, to create new traditions of self-reliance, and at the same time, new opportunities for education and economic empowerment.
Big problems require big solutions. Each UPG Garden Center will provide essential resources: Family Gardens for those living in apartments, composting, soil, seeds, plants, trees, and experiential education.
Nurseries will grow fruit trees and vegetables for Urban Agriculture, and Natives for Urban Forestry and Neighborhood Transformations.
Butterfly Gardens will give life to rare and even endangered butterflies.
Children will grow up knowing that they have the power and the knowledge to make the world they live in a better place because they have done it!
