D.T.E.S. Farm Building

[James Butler]

Hello,
Someone recently informed me about this really interesting event taking
place tomorrow. There starting a not-for-profit urban farm at Hastings
St. and Hawks Ave. and they need volunteers to help build it. Here's the
gist of it from Monday's Metro:

***
Atop 15,000 square feet of asphalt, volunteers will be building giant
planters and built-in composters in the hopes that, come spring, produce
will be growing on five empty lots beside the Astoria Hotel.

Bryce Gauthier is a landscape architect with Sharp and Diamond Landscape
Architects, which is working with Projects in Place and United We Can to
build the garden at Hastings Street and Hawks Avenue.

“Ultimately it will be about 3,500 square feet of urban farm space,”
said Gauthier.

He said employment opportunities are a “huge aspect” of the project,
which will provide local organic food to Vancouver restaurants and soup
kitchens.

“There are a lot of groups that are trying to make the Downtown Eastside
a green economic zone … to create employment opportunities in a unique
way that makes the environment better,” he said.

“Most of the people who do the composting do it on bikes and a large
aspect of the farm is served by non-motorized transportation.”

He added that the aesthetics of the DTES will be improved in the process.
***

To find out more and to sign-up to help build, goto:
http://projectsinplace.wordpress.com.

Cheers,
James
President
CHBE Sustainability Club