The green movement is continuing to take root in Bridgeport. This summer an overgrown brownfield in the eastern end of the city will be the site of a new community greenhouse.
Contractors will begin construction on the 80,000-square-foot greenhouse later this month, turning a neighborhood now considered a “food desert” into a place where the homeless and residents alike can find local produce.
The project is expected to employ up to 75 people, 40 of whom will be veterans, according to organizers, who have dubbed the project Heroes Village.
“We”™ve got to be able to feed ourselves,” said Antonio St. Lorenzo, Heroes Village CEO. “A country that can”™t feed itself, can”™t sustain itself.”
By September, Lorenzo said he hopes to have fresh produce available for sale, most of which will go to restaurants, grocery stores and schools. Residents in the neighborhood, which has very few places to buy groceries, will be able to buy subsidized food at an adjacent retail center and Lorenzo said he plans to give away food twice a week to the homeless or anyone who is hungry.
After working extensively with homeless veterans, Lorenzo said he wanted to create a business where veterans could find employment and where he could give back to the community. When he began to take notice of how many vegetables are being imported into the state from around the world rather than being grown locally, Lorenzo said he knew what kind of business he wanted to create.
“We can build and grow anything in this country,” he said. “We have a lot of guys coming home from the military that are very well educated, yet they have the highest unemployment rate in the country. They”™re entitled to a job and they”™re entitled to eat right.”
The Bridgeport greenhouse is the first of many Lorenzo and business partner Sean Richardson plan to build across the country. Next, the two are looking at abandoned lots in Newtown and Danbury.
“It”™s amazing what happens to a neighborhood when you get rid of the blight,” Richardson said. “The lot is honestly disgusting and we”™re going to be replacing it with something that is visually beautiful. It will add a lot to the neighborhood.”
Though Lorenzo at one time owned four restaurants, neither he nor Richardson has any experience growing food. So to help the greenhouse get started, experts from the Cooperative Extension System ”” run through the University of Connecticut”™s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources ”” will be offering employees classes on how to grow food and manage a greenhouse.
UConn educators have worked with commercial greenhouses for decades, but in recent years the school has been shifting its focus on to community gardens and more recently, to community greenhouses, said Bonnie Burr, assistant director of UConn”™s Cooperative Extension System. Heroes Village will be one of the first community greenhouses the school has worked with and the first where the school will be directly training veterans.
“I think the project will be very successful,” Burr said “This is an opportunity to impact the economy and to eat fresher.”
Burr said she was excited for the project to take off and commended Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s administration for recognizing the need for sustainable urban and suburban agriculture. In May, officials at the Department of Economic and Community Development announced a $1 million grant for the Heroes Village.
“Anytime you can create a local food item, it will benefit the local economy,” Burr said. “It has a real economic impact, when local people grow local food. That”™s local money going to local people.”
