What is the Community Chicken Coop Project?
St. Pete Youth Farm was the winner of the Root Family Foundation $15,000 grant through the We Choose Program. The Root Family Foundation was started 4 generations ago by Chapman Jay Root, the inventor of the famous glass Coca-Cola bottle we all know and love. He has instilled the value of giving back in his family and every year they down-select and choose among organizations family members pick to support and vote for winners. We are incredibly excited to put this money to good use and our plan is to kickstart our Community Chicken Coop Project with these funds.
This project is to address first the ordinance within the City of St. Pete that doesn't allow chickens to be raised on land that does not have someone residing on it. As a farm, we see this as a place to raise policy change and we are working towards that, but in the meantime, this is an opportunity to engage our neighbors in fostering chickens for us. We will provide the chickens, coop, feed, and all necessary supplies to any interested neighbor and all we ask is that leftover eggs they don’t need are given to us. This aligns with our mission at St. Pete Youth Farm of providing nutritious food for the community. In the same way, we are giving away Mini Gardens for the community to grow their own food so that the power is given back to the people in controlling where their food comes from and how they can access it.
Neighbors living in the surrounding neighborhoods of the Youth Farm can contact us below for more information on being part of the project.