Greetings, and a Special Thank You to the Honorable Mayor Marilyn Strickland of Tacoma for hosting the recent fundraiser in support of the Maxine Mimms Academies Garden of Eden Demonstration Project - an innovative approach to gardening that can provide year-round access to fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables for children and their families in our community.

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is a Community Agricultural Initiative. It features the collaboration of the Maxine Mimms Academies - a 501(c)(3) non-profit, The Evergreen State College Tacoma, and the City of Tacoma. The Garden of Eden is designed to grow healthy, safe, affordable, organic vegetables, herbs, plants and flowers all year long. In addition to supplying abundant quality food, this initiative creates many long term, good paying, local jobs and a new sustainable economic institution.

There’s a growing body of evidence that urban farming not only strengthens community bonds, but it also reduces violence and stress. Research has shown that if you diminish violence, people will be less stressed, and less–stressed people eat healthier.

By embracing indoor urban farming, we are not deluding ourselves that we're solving the food desert problem. What we’re doing is using food as a tool to change individual lives and to change our community for the better.

The bigger win is jobs – and jobs nurture a whole community, with pride, self esteem, good health and a true sense of community. Thanks for your support.

Michael Twiggs

Garden of Eden Project Director
Maxine Mimms Academies

Plant a seed. Grow a child.