Goals
- Grow sunflowers on vacant land in Pittsburgh and New Orleans
- Create platforms for green job opportunties
- Improve soil conditions to enable long term sustainable land use
- Produce value-added materials like biofuel feedstock to reduce costs
- Support community capacity through education and planning
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Overview
Our vision is to catalyze community prosperity by growing sunflowers on urban vacant land to fuel community regeneration efforts.
Growing sunflowers can address environmental hazards such as toxic soil, and stormwater runoff, produce straight vegetable oil for biofuel feedstock, and connect community partners to emerging green jobs opportunities. These investments build the foundation necessary for potential community vegetable gardens or fruit bearing orchards.
Outcomes:
Reclaim up to 50 vacant lots in Pittsburgh & New Orleans • Leverage matching funds to conduct research and analysis around green investments to enable future opportunities for partnersDevelop education and training materials for 500 participantsPresent lessons learned at 3 national conferencesBy reducing the costs of green strategies, improving physical conditions, and empowering community partners we can create jobs, halt the cycle of urban poverty and create value though appropriate innovation.
How will the 50K be Used? |
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| Budget Notes: Funds from the Refresh Project will be invested to reclaim multiple acres of vacant land in Pittsburgh and New Orleans serving as seed investments in ongoing community revitalization efforts informing GTECH's development of a national model. | |
| $ 13,000 | Community engagement, education & planning (Pittsburgh & New Orleans) |
| $ 2,000 | Environmental Testing (soil samples, etc) |
| $ 30,000 | Project Implementation (site preparation, planting, maintenance, mgmt |
| $ 5,000 | Harvest material storage and processing |
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