Artist and urban grower Meei Ling Ng is creating urban farms to provide Philadelphia’s homeless population with hyperlocal produce, writes Karen Chernick for Salon Media Group.

Ng started her collaboration with South Philadelphia’s historic Union Baptist Church a year and a half ago. The church started a soup kitchen two decades ago, providing people with free and nutritional meals during the weekly Friday luncheon.

“We just vowed that we’re not going feed people anything that we wouldn’t eat or feed our families,” said Loretta Lewis, one of the veteran congregants.

The artist and the church have developed what they call the UBC Garden of Eden.

“I want to promote ‘grow food where you live,’” Ng said. “That’s always my project title, everywhere. It benefits the rest of the community, too, through educating how to grow.”

Ng has planted a variety of crops, including black heirloom tomatoes, rainbow chard, summer squash, purple cauliflower, and Asian pears. All of these are cultivated in raised beds and in the orchard on the church’s perimeter.

Thanks to the project, Ng and the UBC soup kitchen volunteers are slowly removing the need to depend on produce donations for the program.

Read more about the urban garden from Salon Media Group by clicking here.