The Weingart Center Association Hosts the Launch
of the Urban Farming Food Chain - 29/07/2008
Launch Event Includes Guest Speakers Actor / Activist Ed Begley, Jr. and Actor/Comedian Richard Lewis
LOS ANGELES - July 29, 2008 – The Weingart Center Association (WCA) will host the formal launch and press event of the Urban Farming Food Chain on Friday, August 1st at 10 am. Featured guest speakers include Ed Begley, Jr. (actor/activist) and Richard Lewis (actor/comedian/Urban Farming Advisory Board), and WCA President and CEO Gregory C. Scott. The event will showcase a vertical garden installation in progress at the WCA and a walking tour to view a completed wall at the Rainbow Apartments, another of the four Food Chain sites.
Ownership of the Food Chain wall at the WCA will be integrated into the myriad of programs that the center provides to participants, including work force development and education, community reentry, and short term housing. The WCA mission is to transform lives by providing high quality human
services to homeless men and women, giving them hope and an opportunity to lead productive lives off the streets. Engineered by Green Living Technologies, the Urban Farming Food Chain will help create opportunities for team building, skills-training and community involvement.
Urban Farming, a nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger, will install the wall at the Weingart as one of four ‘edible’ green walls in Los Angeles’ Downtown and Skid Row area. The walls will enable residents to grow and harvest their own fresh, organic produce, each wall comprising a link in the Food Chain. The Urban Farming pilot project is partially funded by grants received from The Annenberg Foundation and from the City of L.A. Office of Community Beautification with additional donations from Warner Bros Entertainment and other sponsors.
The four walls are made up of a total of 180 panels growing approximately 4,000 fruit and vegetable plants. These walls will provide a model that Urban Farming will replicate across the country and abroad for growing food in urban neighborhoods, while also helping to lower the heat index in the fight against global warming.
Urban Farming is a 501 (c) 3 whose mission is to end hunger in our generation by planting food on unused land and space while increasing diversity, teaching sustainability, motivating youth and seniors, sharing the food with people in need and greening the environment.
Contact: Joyce Lapinsky Lewis
Tel: 323-610-0798
Email: jlapinsky@urbanfarming.org
www.urbanfarming.org
The Weingart Center Association (WCA) is a multi-service agency that transforms the lives of
homeless men and women and individuals at risk for homelessness. On-site services include: transitional
housing; case management; substance abuse recovery; medical and mental health treatment; education;
workforce development; permanent supportive housing; and family services. The WCA has tailored
programs for veterans, people on parole, women, HIV+ individuals and families. Established in 1983,
WCA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Contact: Tammy Metzger
Tel: 213-689-2223
Email - TammyM@weingart.org
Web: www.weingart.org
