Feeding Allapattah Project

Cynthia Aracena, I am a self published author, and the C.E.O. of The Aracena Foundation. From age twenty I began to work as a customer service representative. By the time I was twenty eight I was a single mom of four, and still working in customer service. My children were small and I knew that they needed me to watch them grow, help them with homework, give them love and keep them safe, so I started working from home. The money was never enough, but I managed to get by and make it work. I always knew my calling was to write books and help others, and so in 2010 I put my life plan into practice. I started The Aracena No Boundaries Corp. with the purpose of helping the children and families in my community, in 2012 I published my first book, A New Broom Sweeps good.

The Feeding Allapattah Project, will help with the fight against hunger in our community. This project is unique as it is the only food pantry, in the community, and it will be the only container farm as well. We understand the necessity of such a program, and so do the members of our community. Approximately 11,000 residents in Allapattah live below the poverty level, with an average household income of $22,628. With the area being gentrified, and the average rent at $1,724, and going up 6% every year, it is very difficult for the families in our community to stretch their dollars, and many go hungry. 

It is very expensive to buy fresh food and vegetables, so that pushes our families to purchase cheaper options like processed starchy foods, and canned dinners with high preservatives and sodium adding to the obesity issue we have all around the US.

Fighting hunger in our community. Giving our residents access to better food options and help stop the food waste in our country. In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30–40 percent of the food supply. This figure, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service of 31 percent food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponded to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010. Wasted food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills and represents nourishment that could have helped feed families in need.

Additionally, water, energy, and labor used to produce wasted food could have been employed for other purposes. Effectively reducing food waste will require cooperation among federal, state, tribal and local governments, faith-based institutions, environmental organizations, communities, and the entire supply chain. 

The feeding Allapattah project helps fight hunger in our community, but it will also be a program to teach the residents in our community how to grow their own fruits and help them become self sustainable. Through our free online classes, or small in person classes we will teach our residents how to farm using aquaponics, hydroponics  and aeroponics in small spaces. Allapattah is a large Urban community located in the city of Miami. Many of our residents have enough space in their back yards to grow their own food, but many of them don't . We will have a program to teach everyone. For the people that are not interested in growing their own foods, we will have a farmers market on the weekend so that everyone in our community has access to freshly grown produce. This will be the first container farm in the City of Miami, and we hope to inspire other city's and their residents to do the same.

Our project serves members of the Allapattah community and it's neighboring areas. We feed on average a total of 320 families a week. During this pandemic many of our residents are struggling to keep food on their tables. Some of them have to choose between buying food, or paying rent. Many of our residents are facing evictions, and a lot are going to sleep hungry. Through our project we try to alleviate some of the pain and stress of our neighbors by making sure they at least have food on their tables. People shouldn't have to go to sleep hungry with all of the food waste in this country, and our goal is to prevent that through our project and efforts. 

Our Food pantry is a place where members of our community can come every week and receive a box of groceries no matter what their circumstances are. As our community faces gentrification, rent has gone up, and salaries remain the same. During the pandemic the situation has gotten worse. We give out the food according to the size of the family. Everyone gets food, no matter how big or small. No matter the gender, the sexual orientation or the race. In this community we are all equal and we take care of one another. 

Every year The Aracena Foundation host a variety of events for the members of our community, and one of the things that stood out to me was the need our residents had for food. They would stand in line for hours to get a hot plate of food. Some mothers would ask to make sure to give their child a plate if there wasn't enough for them. So many people would thank me and ask me if I knew of a place where they could pick up food, and in doing research I found that their was not a single food pantry in my community that was in desperate need of this service. 

There were many nights I went to sleep hungry because I was tired of eating Ramen noodles or rice with eggs. I made a promise to myself that once I got out of that situation, that my children and myself would never have to live through that again. I also promised the lord, that I would help others in need. Many times in my community I saw people struggle. I listened to their stories, and most of them had one thing in common. They did not have enough money to buy food. Everything in our community is getting more expensive, but the social security checks and the salaries remain the same, and now that we are in this pandemic the situation is worse. I don't want to see the people of my community suffer, or go to sleep hungry because all they had to eat was a couple of noodles or worse, nothing at all. My goal is to teach other what I have taught myself how to grown my own food, and with the help of our friends at smart bites, we will have our own fish farm as well. Healthy eating from our own backyard. 

I have been working on this project for the past three years and it has been a success. My neighbors are happy and thankful that we have brought this project to our community. We did a survey where we spoke to our residents, and 98% of them said they would like to have a food pantry, soup kitchen, and a farmers market in our area. So we teamed up with Farm Share and Smart bites to make it happen. We have faced many difficulties along the way because for some reason, our elected officials didn't seem to think it was necessary to help fight hunger in our community. Our City commission meetings are about bringing more buildings and businesses that our residents can't afford to live in, our can't afford to go to. As one of the Founding members of The Allapattah Neighborhood association, and The Community of North Allapattah, my role has always been to assist the members of my community and bring resources to our neighborhood. Our feeding Allapattah project is just one of many projects The Aracena Foundation has. We also partner with the City of Miami Police dept. and through that partnership we are also able to provide services and awareness to the elderly in our community. With the help of our friends and neighbors we will continue to provide this wonderful service to our residents.

I started The Feeding Allapattah project with no funding. For the past three years we have been serving our community and helping them during the most crucial times. In February we were told about the Corona virus, and in March it became a pandemic. Our city was shut down completely. For thirty days our residents were desperate for food because a lot of the members in our community are elder people and do not have access to to computers or internet. The Farm share distribution could only be done by drive through, but most of our elderly residents don't drive. It was a difficult situation for all of us, so we teamed up with Los ninos de Dios ( The children of God.) and we were able to start doing home deliveries to our elderly neighbors of packaged fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, chicken and other food items.  We never gave up, and we came up with a solution to help our neighbors in their time of need.

Our community is known as Little Santo Domingo. In the 1980 the Dominican community was very united and worked together to build a little place that reminded everyone of home. In the 90 the community became divided because some of the residents had different priorities than others. In 2016 our community was still divided, and no one was doing anything to change that. I had a vision of restoring my community and getting the residents involved. In 2017 The Aracena Foundation had the First Dominican Independence Festival and Softball tournament. We had roughly 300 people show up. Today our Festival is partly sponsored by Presidente Beer and has more than 1200 patrons that come from all over South Florida, and this past February we had the very first Dominican parade in Miami. We were able to teach some of the high school children traditional dances, and get the member of our community involved so that we may preserve the Dominican culture in Allapattah which is on the verge of being gentrified.

Container farming is an innovative way to grow fresh fruits and vegetables using the hydroponics technique. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, by using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent.[2] Terrestrial plants may be grown with only their roots exposed to the nutritious liquid, or the roots may be physically supported by an inert medium such as perlite, gravel, or other substrates.[3] Despite inert media, roots can cause changes of the rhizosphere pH[4] and root exudates can impact the rhizosphere biology.[5]

The nutrients used in hydroponic systems can come from many of different sources, including (but not limited to) fish excrement, duck manure, purchased chemical fertilisers, or artificial nutrient solutions.[6]

Plants commonly grown hydroponically, on inert media, include tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuces, marijuana, and model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana.[7]

Hydroponics offers many advantages, one of them being a decrease in water usage for agriculture. To grow 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of tomatoes using intensive farming methods requires 400 liters (88 imp gal; 110 U.S. gal) of water;[citation needed] using hydroponics, 70 liters (15 imp gal; 18 U.S. gal); and only 20 liters (4.4 imp gal; 5.3 U.S. gal) using aeroponics.[8] Since it takes much less water to grow produce, it could be possible in the future for providers in harsh environments with little accessible water to grow their own food.[9] ( Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics)

Our mission is simple, to improve the quality of life for children and families in our community. There are currently 11,719 residents that live below poverty level in the Allapattah community. Increasing daily and expounded by the current economic situation in the country. The Feeding Allapattah project intends to eliminate hunger in our community.

The Aracena Food Pantry feeds 320 families weekly. Communities of low socioeconomic status often face hardships in relation to their health. Due to limited resources, fast food is generally the more affordable option. The consumption of processed foods, high in preservatives and sodium contribute to lower life expectancy, obesity, hypertension, etc..

Phase 3 of the Feeding Allapattah project is the implementation of a container farm in our community. That will eventually result in weekly farmer’s markets and workshops. The goal of this project is to provide our residents with knowledge needed to grow their own produce.  The immediate output of the Farmer’s Markets will be the access to locally grown fresh produce. Activities will include the implementation of rooftop and hydroponic farms. There will be workshops held weekly to teach residents to apply these methods in the own backyards. Our partnerships with the Miami Jackson Senior High will allow students to earn community service hours. Self-sustainability is one of the greatest gifts one can give to a community. Self-sustainability is the long-term objective.

The International Rescue Committee operates several food access programs in City Heights, San Diego. These programs have been so impactful that they’ve expanded implementation to 16 locations across the country. They provide workshops, where topics include best growing practices and crop selection. In the 2010 “Review and Analysis of the Benefits, Purposes, and Motivations Associated with Community Gardening in the United States” Draper and Freedman found that community gardens produce academic and developmental results in the youth,  overall  enhance positive dietary habits (ex. increased fruit and vegetable consumption), promote food security and show increased physical activity. Other benefits include crime prevention, community empowerment and social interaction. The list goes on, the community and its residents benefit immensely from such projects. 

Our project serves 4,200 people in the US in a year. 700 in the Dominican republic, and 50 people in Colombia. Our goal is to serve over 11,000 people in the US in the next five years, and 10,000 between the Dominican Republic and Colombia. The goal is to teach them how to grow their own food in small spaces at a very low cost if any. While our project targets low income families in all of the above countries, our goal is to teach everyone how to live a healthier life style and have access to better food choices by growing it in their own backyards, rooftops, or space and the free training will be available online or in person to everyone that is willing to learn. Growing your own food is a great way to exercise, lose weight and save money. Farming no matter how big or small the farm may be is a physical activity. That with a well balanced diet of your freshly grown fruit and vegetables will help in weight loss. People will also have the option of only growing what they need, and that will help with food loss and waste. Saving people more money in the long run.  

Our Goal is to teach everyone in our community how to grow their own food. We would like to own our own building within the next five years so that we can implement a program where people can go and get hands on training on how to run their own farms. We would like to expand this project to other counties and teach the children how to grow their food as well. We plan to hire ten people within the next year, and add between five and ten more every year depending on the growth of the farm. We want to be able to offer the members of our community a rewarding job where they are learning, growing as individuals and providing for their families while they do it. 

The only barrier that we have is money. When we have the funds anything technical, can be purchased. We have set our minds and hearts to this project and our goal is to get it done. With hard work and determination, anything is possible. We will put in the work, we have been doing it and will continue to do so. Everyone needs a push and a helping hand, when we receive this grant we will be able to help thousands of people in this world, and that is what life is about. Helping others that can't help themselves, but teaching them and guiding them on how to help themselves. How to become self sufficient, and independent. Planting the seed of hope in peoples hearts so that they may plant it in others. When a person is hungry they are not able to focus and learning becomes more difficult. Teaching people how to grow their own food will give them one less worry at night. This is our plan for the next five years, to start a project that will last a lifetime and always benefit the people in need.   

We have applied for several grants, and yes our goal is to help people be self sufficient, but as an organization we have to do the same. This will be possible through the farmers market & Cafe. We will sell fresh produce at a lower rate than the supermarkets to the people in the community that have no interest in farming, but still want access to fresh healthy foods. Because the foods will be grown in the same place as the market there is no middle man, so we can sell better products at a cheaper rate. We also have several local restaurants that have committed to purchasing the foods we grow so that they can offer healthier options to their customers.

We partner with Farm Share, Los ninos de Dios and Smart Bites to Go. Farm share and Los ninos provide the foods from the farmers to us and we distribute it to the community. Smart bites to go it the first Vegan restaurant in Allapattah and the only one that grows their own herbs. In the partnership with us, they will help with the startup process of the hydro farms, and they will also purchase the food from us.  

We are seeking $1115,000.00 in funding to run our farm for the next three years. In this time we will educate and train our employees, expand our marketing and continue to build on our business strategy so that we can reach our self sufficient goal, and not have to depend on grants. We will continue to build strong partnerships, continue innovating and bringing much needed services to our community. We have not yet raised any money for this project, but we have applied to a USDA grant and hope to receive that by September. We are also very hopeful that we will be picked and qualify for your grant as well.  

The Aracena Foundation Allapattah Farm Planning Project
Three Year Budget

2021 Budget Cost Quantity Total Annual Cost
1 Shipping Container $ 40,000.00 3 $ 120,000.00
2 Refrigerated Medium Duty Box Truck $ 38,000.00 1 $ 38,000.00
3 Medium Duty Box Truck $ 32,800.00 1 $ 32,800.00
4 Truck insurance $ 3,000.00 2 $ 6,000.00
5 Fuel   $                          450 weekly $ 23,400.00
6 Maintenance  $ 500.00 2 $ 2,000.00
7 Staff $12 hourly full time 3 $ 74,880.00
8 Staff Training 150 3 $ 450.00
9 Supplies $1,000 $ 1,000.00
$ 298,530.00

With funding we can start and complete the final phase of our project. Through mentor ship, and coaching is always of help to every individual. Everyone learns from someone and it is never to late to learn. What we learn from our partners can be taught to the members of our community. It's a never ending cycle of learning that our community is so desperate for. Marketing, media and exposure will help bring people to our market & cafe so that we may reach our goal of becoming self sustained. There are so many good, and kind people in this world, and most of us are always moved by a good cause. Helping a community to thrive is a great cause and marketing, media, and exposure will help us get the last push we need.

We would like to partner with Disney. This may be wishful thinking, but the have a hydro farm in Epcot that provides the food for every restaurant at the park. The quality and quantity of the food they grow is amazing. If our team could train with them, and learn how to grow food on that level, we would be able to not only make a huge difference in our community, and the neighboring ones, but in the other countries we mentioned as well.