8 days — Let's help Karena match this $20K gift to build the farm at Esteban Park

In keeping with our theme of taking care of body and Earth as one, Karena Poke, the owner of Urban Philanthropy, has very generously been donating her time to help build the entryway urban organic farm to the ecological Esteban Park in Southeast Houston.

She has already raised $20,000 from City Council District D, Dwight Boykin''s office and needs to match that.

Let's help her reach her goal. Please donate here at her Indiegogo crowd funding site, or for tax-deductible donations, here, and share with your friends.

Thanks so much for your support. Esteban Park is becoming a powerful educational and ecological refuge for people and nature in this underserved area. See Karena's message below.

Jarid Manos
Founder & CEO
Great Plains Restoration Council

Message from Karena Poke, owner of Urban Philanthropy: 10,000 Pounds of Fresh Vegetables and Fruits in a Food Desert

I know the vision of Esteban Park with its entryway urban organic farm benefiting the community has been a dream for a few years. Finally we have been able to get some traction and attention from folks that are willing to invest dollars and time.

So far I've been able to get the farm area cleared and raise $20,000 from District D, Dwight Boykin's office.

I need your support with bringing more awareness and more money to the project so we can build this organic farm.

We only have 7 days remaining to raise $20,000.

Together we can do it by asking 100 people to donate $50, $200 people to donate $25 and 100 or more people to donate $100. Please engage people by email and social media. This project feeds families in Southeast Houston and at the Bread of Life Homeless Shelter, which is an original partner of Esteban Park. It also provides after-school programs and senior activities.

Please help me match this grant from District D, Dwight Boykin's office and we can build the farm right now. Thank you.

Karena Poke
President, Urban Philanthropy by KP
Urban Philanthropy by KP on Facebook

BACKGROUND:

You know our Restoration Not Incarceration(TM) program has been creating and restoring the Coastal Prairie Preserve in the back of Esteban Park, where a wild native prairie is beginning to flourish. We even saw our first pair of grassland nesting birds.

The media deems this neighborhood one of the 15 most violent in the country.

You know that Great Plains Restoration Council's Ecological Health model of taking care of body and Earth as one — that our bodies and lives are part of our ecosystems — is building crucial new connections for the environment while directly helping people and wildlife.

The urban organic farm designed for the front of Esteban Park, on old degraded land, in this very underserved area, is part of a sweeping healthy vision that will not only provide direct refuge and health but amplified educational advancement for the larger environmental movement, especially the critically endangered Coastal Prairie of the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks as always for helping out.

PLEASE DONATE TO THE LETTUCE LIVE PROJECT

Thank you!

Previous GPRC newsletters can be found archived here.