WE (West End) Community Gardens in Birmingham, Alabama provides an inner-city neighborhood with affordable organic produce. WE Gardens was founded in 2008 by Urban Ministry, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-sectarian non-profit organization that has served Birmingham for 35 years, in partnership with Community Church without Walls.
These organic gardens provide a place for community members to connect with nature and food, participate in sustainable organic gardening, grow or purchase affordable organic produce in the midst of a food desert, learn about healthy living at two free community festivals each year (the Summer Solstice festival and the Collard Green Cook-Off and Wellness Festival), and to socialize in a peaceful community green space.Birmingham is one of the most food insecure metro areas in the nation, and the West End community is a designated food desert in which as many as 80% of all households lack transportation. Our community experiences above average rates of poverty and suffers from high rates of health complications related to a poor diet. WE Gardens is an important part of Urban Ministry’s mission to serve our community holistically with programs of compassion (meeting immediate needs) and wholeness (meeting long-term needs). Food from the gardens is given away to ministry clients, church members and neighbors. We offer affordable rental plots for families to grow their own food in 4 by 6 foot raised beds. Finally, we offer organic produce at very low prices at a twice-monthly curb market.
This grant will allow us to continue expanding our gardening space into several new lots we have purchased adjacent to our current garden. Our plan is to install a water catchment system to provide a sustainable water source for all garden properties. Currently, WE Gardens is watered by a neighbor’s water hose, which is neither sustainable nor efficient. We also need this grant to continue to develop our second site, OUR Gardens, which is currently a small flower garden tended by Outstanding Urban Development (OUR) youth offenders from the Birmingham Family Court system. OUR Gardens currently has no water source, which has hampered its development, but it is a centrally located and very visible part of our gardens. We also plan to install a hoop house on new WE Gardens properties to increase our growing capacity during the winter. A new water catchment system will also greatly expand our growing capacity and reach.
Expanding WE Gardens and OUR Gardens will in turn allow us to expand our internship program, which employs young men from the West End Community. The participants in this internship receive leadership training, gardening experience, a fair wage and solid employment experience. Such a program is important in a neighborhood where over 30% of individuals live below the federal poverty line.
This grant would also allow us to increase the teaching space available for our Urban Kids after-school and summer camp program participants and to increase the amount of plots available to community gardeners.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity. We appreciate your consideration!