Victory Garden Greenhouse Rebuild

Pingree Farms Website

Pingree Farms is an urban farm originally established in 1993 as a means of providing food to an underserved community. It has since become a 501©3 dedicated to neighborhood revitalization and youth education through agriculture. Pingree Farms is a proud partner of 4-H groups throughout the metro-Detroit area, as well as providing meaningful educational opportunities to the young people of Detroit.

All 15 acres of the Pingree Farms gardens provide nutrient dense food to underserved community members of Detroit, especially those living in area of the farm. The farm’s neighborhood is a community comprised primarily of those from historically marginalized groups (elderly, African-American, Middle Eastern) with a median income of just over $16,000/year and 53% of the population receiving food stamps. All produce is grown and gathered through the efforts of volunteers and is provided to the community free of charge.

An integral component of Pingree Farms’ mission is a greenhouse which suffered significant damage over a year ago due to heavy snowfall. A new roof and extensive refurbishing of the greenhouse is required to resume activity.

Pingree Farms is partnering with the STEM Research Class of a local college- preparatory high school (students and faculty) to spearhead the repair of the greenhouse. Plans are to repair the roof and provide necessary infrastructure to allow year-round autonomous function.  The goal is to repair internal structural piping to prevent any further potential damage to the roof and install a solar powered heating and cooling system that will produce a carbon-negative system. Monies raised ($13,000 is required for structural piping, solar panel power grids, solar generators, heaters with digital thermometers, outdoor box fans) will purchase materials and all labor will be provided by the STEM students.

Once completed, the project will allow the year-round production of fresh vegetables that will be distributed to local community members and other Detroit citizens through Pingree Farms’ relationship with Focus Hope (a Detroit-based, non-profit organization whose aim is to overcome racism and poverty). The greenhouse will strengthen the educational goal of providing meaningful opportunities to urban youth through agriculture to create sustainable community change. 

For the STEM students, the majority of whom come from the more privileged suburbs of Detroit, the work refurbishing and subsequently maintaining the greenhouse will expose them in a meaningful way to societal issues such as food deserts, environmental injustice, and income disparity. This project can also potentially inspire these students to explore careers in sustainability or environmental issues while developing young leaders.