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WHAT:
On Saturday, April 15, District 5 City Commissioner Regina I. Hill will join the City of Orlando’s Sustainability and Resilience team and Bank of America volunteers to help build a community garden at the McQuigg Urban Farm in the Parramore Neighborhood. The new farm, near the Callahan Neighborhood Center, will provide increased access to healthy and affordable produce for the Parramore community. At the event, teams will work together to assemble 15 freestanding, raised, garden beds and fill them with soil and seedlings, for tomatoes and pepper plants for food and marigolds for pest prevention. Teams will also build storage sheds to house the necessary tools to tend to the property and gardens long term.
Once fully built out, the McQuigg Urban Farm will become the largest public urban farm in the city. Made possible by a $50,000 Grow-A-Lot U.S. Department of Energy grant administered by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the city has transformed previously vacant lots into an urban farming oasis. The first phase of the project is the community garden build on West Jefferson Street. The second phase of the McQuigg Urban Farm project will include the city’s first hydroponic container garden and fruit tree nursery.
Part of the Green Works Community Action Plan, urban farms help to further the city’s sustainability goal to ensure fair access to affordable, healthy food options within half a mile of every resident and increase local food assets. The new farm helps the city meet the goal of reducing the impact of food insecurity in underserved neighborhoods and allow residents greater access to nutritious food to improve quality of life.
WHEN:
Saturday, April 15, 2023
8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
**Media interview window from 8:30 – 9 a.m.**
WHERE:
McQuigg Urban Farm and Garden
716 West Jefferson Street
WHO:
District 5 City Commissioner Regina I. Hill
Daniel Friedline, City of Orlando Sustainability Project Manager
Jodie Hardman, Bank of America Senior VP/Market Executive
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