Urban Harvest

Project Details

Food Advocacy

Where: Houston, TX

Dedication Date: November 16, 2019

Donation Type: Teaching garden and support for plant-distribution program

Size:

Claim to Fame: An off-the-grid teaching garden supports 130 community gardens and 49 small family farms

Project Overview

Urban Harvest believes that people can feed themselves, promote sustainability and revitalize their communities by growing healthy food. With gardens from Galveston to Magnolia, the Urban Harvest Community Gardens Program includes one of the largest networks of edible gardens in the country.

A Sun Club grant will fund the building of a community and demonstration Teaching Garden on approximately 5,500 square feet of reclaimed railroad right-of-way in Houston’s East End. The garden is located in an area with 81% minority and 82% low-income populations, and where a quarter of residents do not own a vehicle.

The Teaching Garden will include a solar shade structure to power LED lights and an irrigation system to the garden. A 2,400-gallon rainwater harvesting tank will also be on site. A portion of the $126,265 total Sun Club donation will go toward the creation of swales, an irrigation system, garden boxes made of recycled wood and concrete, and the purchase of fertilizer and sod.

In addition, Sun Club will support Urban Harvest’s distribution events which supply 1,365 seasonal transplants to community gardens and farmers each year.