When the Second Annual Well House Plant Sale opens on May 17, you can expect some big changes on already display – with more changes coming in the very near future for the Southeast Grand Rapids neighborhood organization committed to eradicating homelessness in our city.
The Well House's Urban Food Growing program will be hosting this daylong event featuring 1000s of heirloom plants including tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, greens, herbs, and more, for sale at $2 per plant.
With each sale you will be supporting a program in our city that enables their residents, now approaching nearing 40 people in six homes, to have access to fresh food. Proceeds will also enable Well House to purchase additional vacant land from the
Kent County Land Bank Authority.
With the additional land they will be able to allow more than 75-100 people to gain access to fresh food through the added plots. Any leftover produce will be directed to its soon-to-open community garden farmers' market.
"We have already started farming this year at our massive plot on Sheldon and Pleasant. With the money raised from the plant sale, we will be able to add even more land to our care," says Well House's Executive Director Tami VandenBerg about their urban farming efforts.
The plant sale supports not just their ability to provide fresh food for the Well House residents - who also work in the gardens - but this level of community access means that they get to share the land with their neighbors as a part of their food justice work.
It is hard to imagine that just a little over a year ago, the Well House reopened after its restructuring under VandenBerg's leadership to welcome 12 -15 people.
Now with 2015 on Well House's radar and emboldened by their mission to make a difference in the area of homelessness, they have set a goal of a total of 15 houses under their care by the end of 2015. Talk about seeds of change.
Buy a flat or two or three and let's help the Well House make this goal (while making us healthier in the process!).