public health departments and community organizations in many locations, including Detroit, Birmingham and Washington, D.C.
The gardens can create an opportunity for people to be trained in urban agriculture," Dr. Ebenezer says.
"We're looking at whether we can create entrepreneurs."
Ripe, red tomatoes growing in abundance on the roof of a parking garage?
Handfuls of lettuce thriving on rooftops?
Fruits, vegetables and flowers blossoming in the company of SUVs and jeeps?
History of Experiments
In 1993, Dr. Job Ebenezer,
Director of Environmental Stewardship at ELCA, established a container garden on the roof
of the parking garage at the ECLA offices in Chicago. 
The hope was that
the rooftop garden would serve as a role model for creative use of urban space throughout
the country. The need for such a project evolved out of issues of food sustainability and
several global trends: urban population growth; farmland and forest land loss due to
development; creative use of wastelands in urban areas; recycling of food wastes in
cities, and a burgeoning community gardening movement that empowered poor people to grow
their own food in their own neighborhoods.
Dr. Ebenezer set about to prove the feasibility of growing
vegetables in plastic wading pools. The demonstration garden has proved to be highly
successful. In 1997, gardeners harvested 984 pounds of vegetables from 38 pools in an area
measuring 1,625 square feet. One pool alone yielded an average of 22.5 pounds of tomatoes,
cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini and a variety of greens. This is equivalent to about
26,800 pounds. per acre, which far exceeds that of commercial yields in the state of
Wisconsin and even the national 1996 average yields.
The urban agriculture project of the ELCA demonstrates how
fresh, healthy vegetables can be grown inexpensively in containers virtually anywhere --
at the edges of parking lots; along railroad tracks; on back porches; on rooftops; in
patios; in driveways; in vacant lots between buildings; in brown fields or areas where
there is a concern about soil pollutants; in areas where soil nutrition is lacking -- just
about anywhere there is a bit of space, sun and access to water.
Originally conceived by ECHO (Educational Concerns for
Hunger Organization) of Fort Myers, Florida, the use of low-cost containers such as
plastic children's wading pools is an easy, affordable means by which to produce safe and
nutritious food.
These gardens use much less water than the amount needed for
conventional row planting in open fields. And best of all, the fresh foods grown can
provide much-needed nutrients for impoverished families. In some cases families can even
earn additional income by selling their excess produce. Food from the Lutheran Center
garden is donated to the Chicago Food Depository for distribution to feeding programs in
the city.
Seems impossible, but by following his dream, Dr. Job Ebenezer, Director for Environmental Stewardship and Hunger Education at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago has proven otherwise.