means that these parents have a low income and may struggle to find healthy food (Castro, s.d.). Many
do not have easy access to facilities that sell food. Many do not have a means of transportation to get to
areas that sell food. The goal of Worcester Roots was to address all of these issues. Worcester Roots felt
that a greenhouse would be a good addition to the community.
Worcester Roots is located in an area that is not too affluent, seeing that they are serving the people in
this area. Worcester Roots does not currently have a sustainable means of offering food to the
community. The sponsor believes that a greenhouse may be a possible solution to the current situation
in Worcester. A greenhouse, if established correctly, can be both sustainable and beneficial to an area
such as the food desert of Worcester. It not only is the food that would result from the greenhouse, but
the sense of community and education could be improved by the operation of a greenhouse. It could
bring the community closer in working together to eradicate poverty and hunger from this region. It by
no means is a greenhouse the ultimate solution for the issue, but it certainly can greatly improve the
living condition of the individuals that live in Worcester and the situation of not having many reliable
sources for food.
The aim of this project is to provide a testing ground for urban food production in Worcester and to
promote and educate about urban food production. The greenhouse will be used to grow seedlings that
locals can grow, and will also be capable of growing full plants, and will be set up so it can provide an
educational experience for local youth and interested community members wishing to learn about
aquaponic food production as well as about worker cooperative businesses. The fully functional
greenhouse will operate during the whole year, being ran by Worcester Roots and volunteered
members of the community, who will be involved in the growing, selling, and managing the greenhouse.
In our research we analyzed suitable fish for cold weather, the most convenient fish tanks and vegetable
beds, the interior layout design in order to optimize food production as well as working and teaching
space and also more general aspects, like market research and comparison between different kinds of
materials.
The research will be open source, anyone can access, modify and reproduce the designs. This will
provide the community with the information on how to analyze, consider, and choose between the
different aspects of a greenhouse that would best fit their individual needs for free. In addition to this
Worcester Roots will be hosting workshops and events to promote worker empowerment, in order to
motivate the community to get involved in this greenhouse, and to help people use this information and
expand the idea of growing food in urban areas and minimize the main issues of food deserts. Worcester
Roots has a great initiative to solve one of the greatest issues there will ever be. How to feed everybody.
And this project will provide people with small and simple solutions to this problem, not only providing
the community with food, but also teaching them how to do it on their own.