A flourishing rooftop farm is allowing residents of an Atlanta, GA homeless shelter to grow food and develop valuable life and professional skills. Located atop a sustainable building run by the Metro Atlanta Task Force For the Homeless, the bountiful garden was planted by shelter inhabitants themselves, and yields bushels of fresh produce like kale, chard, carrots, lettuces, radishes and other healthy, homegrown foods that residents may not otherwise have access to.
The colorful urban farm is a way for shelter residents to put healthful and tasty foods on their dinner table, but produce isn’t the only thing being cultivated on the roof. The farmers who tend to the farm’s 80 plantbeds are part of the Truly Living Well Urban Growers farming training program, which prepares participants for careers in entrepreneurial farming and marketing. The six-month intensive training module covers everything from urban beekeeping to harvesting rainwater.
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“It is important to share and train residents in green technology that we are involved in because poor and homeless people are being left out of the green development that we see burgeoning in our community,” Anita Beaty, Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless executive director, told Atlanta Progressive News.
If you’d like to support the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless’s efforts, please click here.
+ Metro Atlanta Task Force For The Homeless
ViaAtlanta Progressive News
Images courtesy Metro Atlanta Task Force For The Homeless’s Facebook photostream
