Ribbon Cutting for Aquaponics Greenhouse

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A ribbon cutting ceremony will take place:

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015BuildAGreenhouse-01

at 2:00pm

Behind Stone Soup, 4 King St, Worcester, MA 01610 (come to back lot)

After months of planning and building, the seven partners in the collaborative project will celebrate the completion of the aquaponics greenhouse at the Stone Soup Community Center. Join us for tours of the new greenhouse, demonstrations of the aquaponics system and speakers from several of the partners.

Interview, video and photo opportunities will be available.

Partners:

  • Worcester Roots

  • Stone Soup Community Center

  • Green Revitalize

  • Technocopia

  • YouthBuild Worcester / Training Resources of America

  • Diggers Landscaping Cooperative

  • WPI’s IQP teams

Funders:

  • UMass Memorial Community Benefits

  • New England Grassroots Environment Fund

  • The Stoddard Charitable Trust

  • The Fletcher Foundation

  • GS Fuller Foundation

Crowdfunding Site:

http://youcaring.com/greenhousecoop

More information:

https://www.worcesterroots.org

The Greenhouse will … be a model for a new economy.

A group has been meeting for over a year that has a desire to create a mission-based cooperative business. The co-op would be owned by these workers and selling food would be the main way it will sustain itself. This pilot greenhouse will provide a test area for commercial crops for a job creation initiative that they plan to grow to other larger spaces in Worcester. The greenhouse cooperative is part of a wider strategy to create employee-owned businesses that are sustainable and help lift people out of poverty by building equity and stability. Along with others in the Worcester Green And Solidarity Economy Alliance (www.WorcesterSAGEalliance.org), we are building a new green economy that creates sustainable jobs for youth and others.

The Greenhouse will … be an educational space.

We will increase knowledge, awareness and investment in healthy food options for Bell Hill area residents and Worcester youth. Neighborhood residents, area community gardeners and a cooperative project all need greenhouse space for seedlings, youth education about nature and urban agriculture. This project will advance Stone Soup’s offering of community resources that improve our neighborhood and Worcester. A crucial part of our mission is creating economic self-sufficiency through the building of democratic workplaces, green jobs and community ownership. The aquaponics greenhouse provides a place for youth and residents to gain experience to create their vision of a cooperative business and achieve this economic self-sufficiency. Community gardeners from the area, Stone Soup members, and the aforementioned greenhouse co-op members have been asking for this resource since 2007. Also, no other greenhouse accessible to the community exists in the city.

This project will directly involve about 30 community gardeners of all ages, about 60 youth ages 11-17 in educational programs, and about 8 people ages 15-45 in the cooperative business enterprise itself.

The Greenhouse will … increased access to healthy food in Worcester.

Worcester Roots and Stone Soup, in collaboration with several organizations, are building a pilot aquaponic greenhouse at Stone Soup Community Center, 4 King St, Worcester to create jobs and provide healthy food to low income residents. What’s an aquaponics system? It’s a growing system that mimics a natural symbiotic relationship between fish and plants. You can harvest produce and fish! No outside fertilizers are needed and since the water cycles through the system, it uses 90% less water.

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