Gethsemane Orangery & Collaborative Urban Agricultural Project
We represent a collaborative of intersecting organizations, including Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church, St. John Baptist Church, St. John Fruit Belt Community Development Corporation, the Rev. Dr. Bennett W. Smith Sr. Family Life Center, and WECGOD, Inc. Our geographic focus is the Fruit Belt community in Buffalo. The Fruit Belt is centered on High Street, with North Street serving as the northern border, the Kensington Expressway to the south, Michigan Avenue to the west, and Jefferson Avenue to the east. The Fruit Belt takes its name from the large number of orchards the first resident’s planted in the area. Holding true to their previously established agrarian nature, the earliest German residents laid out the present streets in the early 1800’s. It’s the street names themselves like Mulberry, Cherry, Orange, Lemon, Peach, and Grape remaining as a testimony to the early nature of the neighborhood.
Overseer Michael Chapman serves as Pastor and CEO of the over thirty-acre village. St. John Baptist Church, a gateway between the Medical Campus Corridor and the Eastside of Buffalo. Since his installation in 2002, Pastor Chapman has propelled St. John Baptist Church and its subsidiaries into the forefront as a major player in the economic and community development initiatives of the City of Buffalo and Western New York region. In 2003, Dr. Chapman created the St. John Fruit Belt Community Development Corporation which has invested $60 million into the development of single-family, subsidized housing units and townhomes and is working to restore the historic Fruit Belt community into a world-class community to compliment a world class Medical Campus through its Comprehensive Collaboration Urban Development Model.
We have convened an exciting collaborative to develop an orangery and urban agricultural center within Buffalo’s Fruit Belt Neighborhood, to be established on the property of Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church. This project will include the installation of a 1,800 sq. ft. orangery greenhouse and will feature a fish hatchery, urban agriculture, butterfly and pollinator gardens, bee farm, and small-scale fruit tree orchard. The remediation of contaminated soil with clean soil will be the first of its type in the Fruit Belt Community. In addition to the orangery, a partnership with the Albright Knox Art Gallery will bring Syracuse artist and horticulturist, Sam Van Aken, and his Tree of 40 Fruit project to the Fruit Belt Neighborhood.
This project, inspired by the St. John Fruit Belt Comprehensive Collaboration Urban Development Model, is part of the Health and Wellness Initiatives with the Rid-All Green Partnership urban farm (Cleveland, OH) serving as a consultant. The Gethsemane Orangery & Urban Agricultural Center will provide greatly needed access to nutritious, healthful, and affordable food for this food desert community as well as opportunities for education, youth and community outreach and engagement programs, job training, and environmental stewardship. We are in consultation with the Rid-All Green Partnership for their expertise and are actively working with local community partners to implement this plan, including Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) Healthy Communities, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect, PC (JKLA), and the BNMC Rotary Club.
With an overall mission to strengthen the city of Buffalo through fostering economic growth, igniting urban revitalization, and building a strong thriving community, the BNMC Healthy Communities team aims to create a healthy, safe and livable community by providing opportunities for patients, visitors, employees, and community members to be healthy where they are. The alignment of the mission of BNMC, Inc. with Pastor Chapman and Gethsemane’s goals for the Gethsemane Grape Orangery & Urban Agriculture Project and the Fruit Belt Community is a natural and serendipitous fit and served as a catalyst for additional collaborators to join the project team.
In addition to the Orangery, a partnership with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery hopes to bring Syracuse native, contemporary artist, and horticulturist, Sam Van Aken, and his Tree of 40 Fruit project to the Fruit Belt Neighborhood. Mr. Van Aken’s artistic practice includes an ongoing series of hybridized fruit trees – each growing more than 40 types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds. With the ambition of planting 8-10 of these trees in the Fruit Belt neighborhood as part of the Gethsemane Grape Orangery & Urban Agriculture Project, this will be the largest installation of these incredible trees anywhere in the world to date. In addition to this grove, sister trees will be planted in strategic locations throughout Buffalo, including at the Albright-Knox Art Museum, support their mission to create stronger connections between people and neighborhoods through public art. As one facet of this transformative project, The Tree of 40 Fruit, is both a fruit-bearing tree and a work of art that will become a symbol of friendship, transformation, hope, and renewal for the Fruit Belt neighborhood as well as the City of Buffalo as a whole.
To round out the team, the Landscape Architects and Urban Planners at Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect, PC will work closely with Pastor Chapman and the SJBC/Rid-All team, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and BNMC, Inc. to facilitate and support the Pastor’s team with overall project coordination as well as provide master plan and site design concepts and drawings. JKLA was introduced to Pastor Chapman by the BNMC Healthy Communities Team because of the firm’s design and community engagement philosophies which drive their innovative and interactive approach to landscape architecture, community building, and placemaking. JKLA will incorporate their understanding of natural systems of the land, the patterns of people and development of communities, gracefully and artfully integrating them to create an enduring and sustainable place that honors the Fruit Belt community’s history while redefining its future story.
An anticipated project budget is attached. We plan to operationalize in 2018. Our project will include Installation Costs, for the set up of the Orangery and Fish Hatchery. Costs include a greenhouse, electrical, an aquaponics system, composting station, composting bins, and delivery of Black Gold compost and soil from Rid-All. The purchase of a Bobcat and Small Dump Truck will be required for set up and ongoing production. The wood chips and organic produce waste are being provided in-kind, by Dr. Brian Sayers. The project will also include bee starter kits, pollinator gardens, and additional fruit trees to create a small orchard. Costs are included to install a perimeter fence, outdoor and path lighting, and security cameras. Annual costs are included for insurance and utility costs. Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect is producing the master plan and construction documents (conceptual drawings attached). They will also provide project management to the contractor(s) and installation process.
Once operational, the project will be overseen and run by the Orangery Operational Coordinator, who has already been trained by Rid-All consultant. He will be assisted by a Technical Coordinator and two part-time Operational Assistants. They will together oversee the ongoing operation and maintenance of the fish hatchery, aquaponics system, agricultural production, bee farm, and orchard. Once established, each component will begin to provide healthy food that will be harvested, sold, and contribute to the project’s ongoing sustainability. Harvests will include fish (twice a year), apples and pears, vegetables, and honey. Produces will be sold locally, into area restaurants and markets for consumption by the Fruit Belt residents and the WNY community.
In addition to production, the Orangery will be a demonstration project. Collaborative partner WECGOD, LLC will provide educational programming through a Garden to Table Intergenerational Program. Founded by Minister Ina R. Chapman, the mission of WECGOD is to decrease the disproportionate burden of disease among medically underserved communities through community partnerships, education, empowerment, and interventional strategies that impact behavioral, environmental and community determinants of health and disease.
The Garden to Table Intergenerational Program will be run by a part-time Program Coordinator and part-time Program Instructor. Hands-on learning, workshops, and shared healthy meals will engage the community in reclaiming their roots and learning about farming, food production, composting, aquaponics, grafting, and environmental stewardship. The Garden to Table Intergenerational Program will work with area schools to engage students, as well as local residents, to learn about food systems together. Educational support from Cornell University’s Cooperative Extension Erie County Seed to Supper program will increase learning to provide healthier food choices. It is hoped that several members of the community will become a trained Garden Educator in the Seed to Supper course and that additional fallow urban fields will be able to be reclaimed and transformed into productive plots of land that offer healthy local food. Together the community will grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.