The federal Department of Government Efficiency has struck a major project for the Jacksonville Parks Foundation.
Dr. Michael Woods presented the Grace Orchards project to the City Council last month in order to create community-based orchards in unused green space throughout the City of Jacksonville. The fruit from the trees would then be available for members of the community to come pick for their own consumption.
Woods says that the federal government has frozen climate funds that would have gone directly to the planting of the orchards: “We are really excited about getting this orchard established on vacant land across our community, trying to address both food insecurity needs, addressing the treescape, beautifying vacant lots – that’s kind of our goal with the Grace Orchards. We received approved funding from Faith in Place, which was a pass through from the federal government to the USDA through the Forest Service and then through Faith in Place. Unfortunately, right now all of the federal grants are being scrutinized and/or placed on a hold, and we are caught in that situation. So, our grant has been placed on a hold while they are still trying to figure out the disbursement of those resources.”
Woods says the hope was to plant the trees this Spring but with the freeze they have been delayed. For now, the Parks Foundation will continue to move forward on its new East Park Acres urban farming project. The East Park work will start within the next week with cover crops, with help from the City of Jacksonville Parks Department.
Woods says that the orchard initiative is now pivoting towards searching for local resources to purchase the trees in order to plant this Fall: “One – we are reaching out to many of our philanthropic community members in hopes that they may be so inclined to step up and maybe provide $1,000 or if I could find 6 individuals to invest $5,000, we can get that $30,000 ready to go pretty quick [to replace the grant funding]. We also realize there are various types of people – we’ve already had several individuals step up and give us $500 investments to help us bring this project to fruition. That’s one thing – we invite the entire community, no matter what you may have, if you want to invest $20 to help buy a tree – that would be great. The Jacksonville Parks Foundation is putting forth an initiative or sort of a call to the community to help us invest in getting this orchard established. Then, if the federal funds do get released, the beauty of it is it will just help to amplify and extend the project even further. The grant was to pay for 200 trees. If we get the donations to match the $30,000, then if the funds get released on top of that – it would just double the size of the orchard project.”
Woods says he’s also seeking out several different grants totaling approximately $2 million in order to further the Jacksonville Parks Foundation projects ranging from the urban farms to low-income housing. For more information, visit townbrook.com.