Overtown Green Haven Project

The Green Haven Project is a nonprofit community farm operating in the Overtown neighbourhood of Miami, Florida. Founded in 2018 by a group of nine people — now reduced to a four-person board — the organisation grows vegetables and other produce on approximately one acre of urban land and distributes everything it harvests free of charge to local residents. The farm operates on a fully organic basis, using no synthetic chemicals. Beyond food production, the space functions as a resource centre where the organisation holds back-to-school supply drives, holiday toy drives, food distribution events, and clothing and goods donations. Partner organisations, including one that conducts regular houseless feedings, use the property to carry out their own community activities, in part because private land status protects these operations from municipal restrictions that apply on public streets.

The organisation is structured as a 501(c3) nonprofit. None of its board members receive a salary; operations are sustained through volunteer labour, in-kind donations of plants, soil, and amendments sourced from partners including a local cooperative, and periodic grants and financial contributions from funders such as a community redevelopment agency and a nonprofit arm of a regional bank, both connections developed through a relationship with Florida International University. A recurring volunteer group affiliated with a yoga and wellness organisation brings between fifteen and twenty people to the farm each month to assist with maintenance and planting. During the growing season, which runs outside the summer months, volunteers help manage crop rows and participate in harvests that are then distributed to the community through on-site and off-site giveaways.

The farm faces ongoing challenges including theft and break-ins linked to drug use in the surrounding area, which has led to significant replacement costs for tools and equipment and necessitated a full perimeter fencing upgrade. Gentrification and displacement of lower-income residents from Overtown represent a structural concern, as the families the organisation works to serve are increasingly being pushed out of the neighbourhood. The board also identifies grant writing capacity and time management as operational constraints, given that all members hold outside employment.

Looking ahead, the organisation plans to redevelop its on-site nursery into a covered educational facility in partnership with Florida International University, providing students with hands-on training in horticulture. It also works to formalise its beekeeping activities, stabilise its chicken-keeping operation for egg production, and secure sufficient funding to offer paid work opportunities to community members.