PGC is Teaming up with Fleet Farming to do Something AWESOME

We’ve been quiet for a little while, brewing up some incredible ideas and we’re ready to come public with a taste of what’s in store!

The local non-profit, IDEAS For Us (IDEAS), has received a lot of attention lately over their fleet farming project. What is fleet farming? Fleet farming is a group of “fleet farmers” who grow food on a fleet of bicycles (not to be confused with Fleetians, people raised in Wellfleet, Massachusetts) .

The group has developed a bicycle-powered urban farming concept that turns the untapped resource of residential lawns into into vibrant micro-farms. The bike-riding-farmers gather twice a week for the “swarm ride” to cultivate and harvest fruits and vegetables before bringing them to local markets to sell to consumers.

Always seeking learning opportunities, Playground City is excited to turn this amazing “food not lawns” operation into an occasion to investigate different sides of the food system. This spring, Playground City Orlando is initiating a learning playlist centered around fleet farming that will challenge learners to discover how their passions link with the neighborhood food environment and for them to realize their power to positively impact it.

While the playlist is centered around fleet farming in Orlando, branches of subjects, playlist spin-off's if you will, function to help learning discover new hobbies and talents. For example, during these learning adventures, students will get to create photography, where they can then display their best pieces at a local art venue. Playground city will magnify the variety of learning opportunities that sit in the soil of the food movement, from learning the science of pollination to the importance of nutrition and health. If students are more intrigued by science, there will be playlist extensions that enable them to dig deeper in that aspect. If students are more interest in creative arts, they can dive into that. Whatever their tune is, there will be a moment to sing it. Playlists as a teaching style aim to encourage youth to discover passions through knowledge and experience, rather than have them look at a list of majors the day they get to college.

Through practice as well as digital media (on the LRNG platform), the fleet farming playlist will reach into a myriad of topics including food access, new-farm-tech, cooking science, food in the media, and food ecology all while growing food, developing empathy for neighborhood challenges, and form deeper connections with their peers and community.

During the next six months we plan to metamorphose a local community in Orlando through its brightest hope: the youth! We are always accepting volunteers to add to our amazing group. Feel free to shoot us a message through email or Facebook. And to see some of the action yourself, stay tuned for information about the “Fleet Feast” that our students will host in celebration of the fruits of their education.