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Free Food Forest planted in Manatee County to feed area in need

This Food Forest is open to anyone in the community to come pick from.

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — If you live in Bradenton, you might notice some new growth. Keep Manatee Beautiful just planted a Free Food Forest.

“We have plums, peaches, lychees, starfruit, banana, blueberries,” Jennifer Hoffman, the executive director of Keep Manatee Beautiful started listing off.

More than 30 different options were all planted by volunteers at Keep Manatee Beautiful, and it's dedicated to the Washington Park community.

Hoffman says this location is in a lower socioeconomic area of Bradenton. 

"Washington Park happens to be what is considered a food desert, meaning it's more than two miles to the nearest grocery store,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman, the brains behind this project, says many people who live there also don't have reliable transportation.

"We are hoping that this gives a local availability to fruits and vegetables for people in this neighborhood,” Hoffman said.

Every fruit or vegetable you pick from the trees and bushes are free!

Even though the Food Forest is in Washington Park, Hoffman says it's open to anyone in Manatee County.

"There's plenty of things for people to try and we even brought in some unusuals, so if you've never tried a lychee before you can try that,” Hoffman said. “We have ice cream banana.” Which is a smaller version of a regular banana, but she says literally tastes like vanilla ice cream.

Hoffman says everything you see in the garden is also entirely organic. Even the mulch.

"It took three years, but it finally came to fruition and I couldn't be more pleased!"

Right now, they are working on making signs to attach to each of the plants to let you know what it is. They'll also include recipe ideas for you to try.

"Something easy, something that takes few ingredients and something that they can make at home with the fruits that they take with them,” Hoffman said. “An example: our fig trees, we’ll have a sign out here that talks about how to make wonderful baked figs."

She says it's also a teaching tool.

“Because everything we do here, you can do in your own yards and we'll teach you how,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman says they hope to plant more of these Free Food Forests around Manatee County. She says there’s already a request to plant one next year in Palmetto.

It takes roughly around $5,000 to make this happen, so with their budget, they can do about one per year, Hoffman said.

The Free Food Forest is located on 410 Sixth Ave. E Bradenton, FL. It sits right outside the gates of the community garden, next to the Florida Health Department.

It’s $25 for a plot in the community garden. It’s a luxury that Hoffman says they want to offer to others in the neighborhood as well, who may not be able to fit the bill.

“Our company, Keep Manatee Beautiful, has decided to sponsor anyone in Washington Park that would like to have a vegetable patch within the community garden,” Hoffman said. “We will give it to them free for the first year.”

There are also plans to dedicate the garden on Nov. 12 at 5:00 p.m.

“We will have free food, free music and a demonstration of how people can plant these in their own back yards,” Hoffman said. “There will be a limited number of free plants given away that evening as well.”

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