Homeless People Supply Shelter Residents with Organic Products

Organically-grown food is expensive but the organic garden tended by homeless people in Atlanta manages to supply shelter residents with fresh produce regularly. The rooftop garden in Atlanta is planted with carrots, chard, kale, collards, lettuces and other vegetables.

Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless Executive Director, Anita Beaty told reporters that the homeless and poor people in the city are not able to access green technology, thus they are now training and sharing residents to get involved. They are teaching the shelter residents the proper approach and skills for responsible farming as well as self-sufficiency. This practice is termed Agorism.

Training facility

The organization, Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, provides services to homeless and formerly homeless community residents through its facility, Peachtree-Pine, where they also provide various training programs, including programs for transitional housing. They also offer day service center and an assistance hotline that is open 24 hours. Their mission is to help the marginalized people in society fix the problem of homelessness through valuable training instead of providing temporary solutions to the problem.

The rooftop garden was started in 2009 and has been used to teach the homeless about sustainable technologies and producing food in an urban setting, while providing them the opportunity to feed their fellow homeless residents with healthy and green food daily, according to Carl Hartrampf. He manages everything about the organic garden and is also a board member of the organization.

Truly Living Well program

The resident-volunteer trainees tending the organic garden are from the shelter. They are already graduates or current participants in the extensive agricultural program. They are raising vegetables in 80 garden beds in the rooftop garden, collecting rainwater for the garden and caring for 1,300 bees needed for pollination and honey production. Not only do they get to eat healthy food, they also get trained in a competitive job skill that could serve them well in the future. Participants in the fully-funded Truly Living Well program receive a six-month training in marketing and entrepreneurial farming. They also receive certification so that they will be able to train program participants in the future.

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