An international foundation is planting its feet in Vancouver with plans to construct a six-foot-tall gardening wall.
The My Arms Wide Open Foundation, in collaboration with the Ray-Cam Community Centre, has proposed the idea of creating a pair of sister vertical food walls — half a world apart — to educate youth about collaboration.
The plan calls for one wall to be built in the town of Cradock in South Africa while its sister would be constructed in the Downtown Eastside.
The 40-foot-by-six-foot garden wall, consisting of more than 1,900 plants, would be harvested by local youth and yield twice as many vegetables and fruits as a normal plot of land.
The majority of food will be donated to Ray-Cam’s food bank.
The project’s price tag is estimated at $25,000 — $20,000 to construct the wall and another $5,000 to develop a curriculum for youth.
Warren Te Brugge, project creator, hopes the wall will be constructed by fall 2012 and continue to be maintained for the next decade. The project, however, is still $20,000 shy of its goal.
Te Brugge believes it is well worth the money.
“We want to enable communities,” he said. “(Kids) really have a vision for what the Downtown Eastside can be, and I think it’s pretty darn amazing — in kids as young as 14 (you can see it), but other people can’t. I really believe that they will change their community.”
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Article source: http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/local/article/1093989--another-seed-in-the-wall