A Mid-State neighborhood is getting spruced up! It's thanks to thousands of dollars in grant money Trevecca Nazarene University just received.
Now, their Urban Farm needs local kids to hop on their bikes and help plant hundreds of trees.
On Labor Day, Trevecca Urban Farm started with planting a tree in Cumberland Park.
They're hoping with their new TreeCycle program, it could lead to planting roughly 700 more.
Nashville is considered what Jason Adkins calls a food desert -- an urban area without much access to fresh food, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
"Around here it's really tough to get fresh food, and people often have mobility problems," Trevecca Nazarene University Urban Farm director Jason Adkins said.
With a $50,000 grant from Metro's Health Department, Urban Farm wants to make it easier to find fresh, healthy food in the Napier and Sudekum neighborhoods.
"The original fast food is fruit, and so we thought, 'What if we plant an edible canopy in our neighborhood using bikes,'" Adkins said.
Adkins hopes to recruit kids to fill those bike seats during a ride to plant all of these trees.
"What better to be planting the food we need on bikes that make us healthier?" Adkins said.
They'll plant everything from pears to pomegranates to pecans, but the benefits don't end with just food.
"We really need to plant a lot of trees in Nashville right now because we're losing a major part of our canopy, and that will help with storm water, with pollution, air quality, and fresh food for people and wildlife," Adkins said.
They said the neighborhood will benefit from the fruits of their labor for many years to come.
Trevecca Urban Farm plans to plant the trees after the leaves fall.
They'll post further updates on their Facebook page. If you want to help, you can visit Trevecca's website.
