Indianapolis Food Forest
The Indianapolis Food Forest will reclaim spaces to redefine "urban renewal" and promote a more sustainable recovery from collective neighborhood trauma by providing access to nature and food.
Leader
Justin Moore
Location
2530 Indianapolis Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46208
About the project
Urban Patch's next project in Indianapolis will mark and address the destruction and erasure of Black urban fabric from 'urban renewal' and highway construction and the consequent generations of disinvestment and demolition. We will make much-needed improvements to three vacant and dumped-on lots in an area that has declined since the construction of an interstate highway that tore through the community decades ago. By working in the UNWA neighborhood where Indianapolis' Black community was focused due to racism and redlining (and where Urban Patch's own John and Joyce Moore grew up) this project will help bridge the pride, heritage, and vitality of this community with the spaces, people, needs, and desires in UNWA today.
The first round of project funds will be used to clear the lot and provide new planting as a 'food forest,' fencing, and furnishing that will make the site usable for those in the community as a passive green space and open area for multi-purpose play.
The Steps
Urban Patch already acquired the three long-vacant properties from the city's Renew Indianapolis land bank. The site needs a perimeter fence to discourage dumping and new plantings and furnishing. Once we have raised the funds we will build out the site improvements with a goal to complete the first round of work by November 2020. As with our previous green space projects like the Park Garden or Ruckle Redbud Grove, each year we will do a new round of improvement, to grow and develop the site as a community resource over time.
Why we‘re doing it
This Black community deserves new spaces for public activation, enjoyment, and healthy living.