Percy Wells, a Regional VP and spokesman for Coca Cola Refreshments with Taja Sevelle, Founder of Urban Farming T. (WWJ Photo/Pat Sweeting)

DETROIT (WWJ) – Celebrating Earth Week, a new project brings fresh produce to Detroit residents who don’t have access to good markets.

The project was launched on East Jefferson near Fairview where Taja Sevelle, Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit organization Urban Farming-T which debuted it’s newest community garden.

“We’d like to see an end to hunger in our generation. And what we do is we plant food on unused land and space and we give it to people in need,” she said.

“We’re going to plant some collard greens… some cabbage, some purple cabbage. We’ll have some onions and… some lettuce. And then we’ll plant some pansies,” said Sevelle.

“Then when the frost lifts — I think that’ll probably be sometime after May 7th, then we’ll start planting the tomatoes and some other plants,” she said.

Sevelle said she founded Urban Farming-T in 2005 with three gardens, a pamphlet and $5,000.   They now have over 24,000 community and residential gardens across the country and abroad. 

On city-owned lots, the gardens are accessible 24/7.