East Point city council tackles food scarcity head-on with ‘Bucket Brigade’ - 11 Alive

In partnership with Food Well Alliance and Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, East Point City leaders deliver 50 bucket gardens to food-insecure families

EAST POINT, Ga. — In the month since the shelter-in-place orders started taking effect around the greater Atlanta metro area, local communities have been affected in a variety of ways.

While some areas concerned themselves with public parks and walking trails, other communities concentrated their focus on food distribution and access.

As days turned into weeks, it became increasingly apparent that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was not going to be going away any time soon. That urgency only continued to build as public schools closed throughout the state and daily food access went from an afterthought to the forefront.

On the Southside, the City of East Point Mayor and City Council have been diligently focused on preserving the health and wellness of its residents by keeping food access at the top of their priority list.

“In this time of social distancing, we're trying to find ways for people to still be able to create food-producing spaces, local, organic, fresh, high-nutrition value right at home without the gathering,” says Food Well Alliance Community Manager, Fred Conrad.

In keeping with that agenda, the City of East Point partnered with local food collaborative, Food Well Alliance and local community farm, Metro Atlanta Urban Farms to create the ‘Bucket Brigade’ on Friday, April 17, 2020.

Staff members from each entity prepared 150 bucket gardens to be delivered to food-insecure families around East Point. Each bucket garden was comprised of three separate prepared buckets pre-planted with a tomato, pepper and parsley plant.