Downtown St. Louis To Sprout Its First Rooftop Farm

Urban Harvest STL’s new farm will cover 10,000 sq. ft. on the roof of a two-story building in downtown St. Louis.
Credit Artist’s rendition courtesy of HOK. Click on image for larger image.

The project received $33,000 in seed funding from Rally Saint Louis, a crowdfunding platform.

By Véronique Lacapra
St Louis Public Radio
Feb 12, 2015

Excerpt:

The non-profit’s founding director, Mary Ostafi, said the 10,000 sq. ft. rooftop will be more than just a community garden. “We’re going to have an outdoor classroom, as well as a gathering space for community events,” Ostafi said. “We’ll be raising chickens and tending bees.”

The new farm will be planted on the roof of a storage facility at the corner of 14th Street and Constitution Plaza.

Urban Harvest STL will hire a part-time farm manager to run the operation, but everything else will be done by volunteers.

Along with growing their own food in community garden plots, area residents will be able to buy shares of the harvest through a community supported agriculture (CSA) program. Some food will be donated to McMurphy’s Cafe at St. Patrick’s Center, a homeless services provider.

Read the complete article here.