African Village Community Garden

Project team

Head: The African Village of Cleveland, Jamel Humphrey

Project description and goals

The project intends to expand an existing community garden into a market garden where the produce will be distributed in a market co-op of the African Village. In doing so the project hopes to encourage community ownership and volunteerism in Hough. Additionally, the project intends to promote a healthy lifestyle by creating a venue for the consumption of local foods in the inner city.

Existing conditions

The 10,000 square foot, vacant lot is located in the Hough neighborhood directly adjacent to the existing community garden. The lot is on a residential street with John W. Raper Elementary School sitting on its corner. There are twelve residential houses on the street as well. 7,650 square feet of the total 10,000 are expected to be good for gardening, the project team expects a yeild of 3300 plants in the first year.

Proposed interventions

The project involves buying a shed to house tools and adding fencing and pathways to the lot. Additionally, the project team plans to install a solar powered irrigation system.

Site maintenance

The project coordinator will be responsible for creating work teams with 3-4 volunteers each. The work teams will each have regular assignments to complete over the 2-3 day work week, April through September.