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Breaking New Grounds turns waste into wealth.

Note: Voting has ended and winners will be announced on December 1st at Metro United Way’s Community Pep Rally!

Description of the Innovation:

1. Summarized—Breaking New Grounds is a nonprofit organization committed to job creation and economic development built on sustainable urban agriculture in areas sometimes referred to as Louisville’s “food deserts.”

2. What makes it unique—Breaking New Grounds starts with some of Louisville’s “waste,” including spent distillery grains, debris from coffee shops and wood chips and turns it into compost and worm compost, with which the organization can earn income and begin urban gardens. Volunteers, Dismas residents, Youthbuild teens and others work together to build gardens in empty lots in West Louisville, with the aim of improving the soil, raising food products for sale and consumption, and providing jobs. Breaking New Grounds’ growth will yield income through food sales, compost sales, worm-casting sales and educational seminars so that it can pay good salaries and provide meaningful work through sustainable agriculture in West Louisville.

3. Project plan—Breaking New Grounds signed a lease for headquarters with New Directions Housing Corp. in March 2009, and began a garden on the edge of Park Hill, and, in cooperation with Youthbuild and the California Collaborative, helped build a garden at New Directions’ Brandeis Apartments at 26^th and Kentucky. We are continuing our work with the California Collaborative to build more gardens in the neighborhood, considered a “food desert” because of inaccessibility to fresh produce and easy accessibility to fast food and snack foods. On September 25, 2009 we host a hoop-house building seminar with our mentor, MacArthur “genius award” winner Will Allen (growingpower.org) who will teach participants to build a hoop house, allowing us to raise high-value crops year round for sale, enhancing our ability to support ourselves and employ people.