The garden’s humble beginning
Recent community surveys exposed the high rate of diet-related diseases and food insecurity among Jupiter’s low-income population. In response, El Sol established the Sunshine Organic Community Garden on Earth Day 2014. Our garden is open to the entire community, with priority membership for low-income residents. This garden serves as a center for El Sol to cultivate its mission of two-way integration. Our garden is slated to produce more than 2,000 lbs of local, organic produce annually to our community. Additionally, the garden serves as a safe space for Jupiter residents, from every background, to meet and work towards a common goal to improve the health of our community.
We intend for the garden to educate and empower all people in Jupiter to grow their own healthy foods using sustainable and organic methods. The garden is composed of 30 “raised bed” style gardens, each around 100 square feet in size. A minimum of 10% of harvests from each garden will be donated to the Jupiter Food Pantry and El Sol’s hot lunch program to ensure that the garden improves the diets of everyone in need, not just its gardeners. Paired with the garden El Sol offers twice monthly horticultural and nutritional workshops to maximize the garden’s positive impact on everyone’s lives. Email Cliff@friendsofelsol.org with any questions regarding the garden or our healthy living workshops.