This morning as I perused the news, I found an inspiring story to share. Instead of a proposed languishing development of townhouses inside Atlanta's city limits, a 7 acre edible forest is being created. It turns out that a third of Atlanta's population lives below the poverty line. That means that hunger is prevalent in the city.
Atlanta's Conservation Fund has purchased an abandoned pecan farm and is converting into an edible forest. The following is a quote from the article in Fast Company:
It’s a public park that’s open now and will expand in the coming years. It houses not just planter boxes for the community to grow produce like tomatoes and squash on their own, but a network of trails through a landscape designed to be eaten, including more than 100 fruit and nut trees that grow figs.
Instead, the goal is to grow fresh produce in an accessible way, and in a space that can be enjoyed by the community. Atlanta isn’t the only city with food accessibility issues, but there it’s a particularly pressing crisis. Largely due to inadequate public transportation, more than half a million people living in Atlanta and surrounding areas are classified as living in a food desert.
I was also happy to see that other cities are interested in replicating this project. What a creative way to battle hunger!
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