Green Acres, Kansas City, Aquaponics Project
Green-Acres, Nelson and Pade, partners – Kansas City Aquaponics Project
This week John and I travelled to Kansas City to meet with Ms. Carol Coe and the Green Acres Community Garden group. We began talking with Ms. Coe over a year ago about expanding their community garden program into aquaponics and education. A group from Green Acres toured our greenhouse in November of 2009 and, now after a great deal of planning, working and collaborating, they are funded and ready to start the project.
Green Acres has partnered with the City, the school district and other organizations to put this plan into action. The project will utilize abandoned (but very nice) greenhouses at East High School to launch an aquaponics program and initiative that will provide fresh food to the community, education and hands-on learning for students and jobs and job training for local youth.
Through common goals, partnerships and innovative thinking, Ms. Coe and all involved in this effort are chipping away at the problems of urban food desserts, compromised educational systems, crime and a lack of jobs. This project will feed people while nurturing the soul through a new connection to food, agriculture and aquaponics. I applaud this group for their foresight and motivation and I truly look forward to working with them.
Stay tuned for developments.