Accessing good food isn’t always an easy task for people living in and around South Phoenix. However, it just got easier to have the space to grow your own food or your personal food business.
Difficulty crowds gathered on March 31 to celebrate the great opening of the new Garden Education Center at Heart &, Soil People’s Garden, and Soil People’s Garden off of 1st Street and Durango. The location will act as a hub for neighborhood empowerment, entrepreneurship training, and agricultural education, especially for women and generally underrepresented communities. At the standard ribbon cutting was a significant audience including Paul Brierley, Director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, Renee Parsons from the Bob &, Renee Parsons Foundation, Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington, and Arizona State Conservationist Keisha Tatem.
” Our work includes everything from helping young people develop good habits quick,” said Kimber Lanning, founder and CEO of Local First Arizona, to starting farmer training and land access. Participants will need this space to practice their skills by planting intermittently, managing pests organically, and learning how to grow food for themselves, their families, and their communities using a demographic model.
This is a significant accomplishment for both the Heart & Soil Garden, which was founded in South Phoenix in 2022 as a vacant lot. The largest gift in Local First Arizona history, the Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, which gave$ 1 million in 2024, made the Education Center expansion a reality, as well as funding the organization’s business accelerator programs for Spanish-speaking and Black entrepreneurs.
Bob Parsons, Co-Founder of The Bob &, Renee Parsons Foundation, said,” To me, this investment is about opportunity, plain and simple. The expanded garden gives people more room, space, and opportunities to grow, work, and learn something that can be passed down generations.
Twelve engaged women growers currently cultivate Heart & Soil, which produces more than 14, 000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables annually. The community can anticipate hands-on training, community workshops, youth-activities, and Regional First’s recently launched Ag Business Boot Camp.
Visit heartandsoilgarden for more details. org.
