PURPLE HOUSE PROJECT PA INC`

Christine’s focus for ECC 2020 is to accelerate goals for the Purple House Project PA Inc. (PHPPA). She has already managed to collaborate with the Center for Hope (CFH) Tioga/Simpkins House, a local women’s shelter in North Philadelphia, and has teamed up to create a community garden. This garden project has been designed to enable shelter residents to plant, maintain, and harvest healthy fruits, vegetables, and a variety of holistic herbs. Participants who can engage in the community garden are then able to positively benefit from locally grown fresh foods at no cost. Her garden initiative has become an exciting opportunity that will directly improve nutritional understanding and decrease food insecurity within the community. Additionally, Christine sees her garden project expanding into other opportunistic areas that can offer unique and innovative programming. These include collaborating with organizations that can teach users how to use produce as ingredients in wellness items such as essential oils and skincare creams or inviting sub-contractors to facilitate nutrition classes, cooking classes, and other wellness-based education. Lastly, her garden project will become a space of solitude where people are able to go unplug from reality while allowing them to feed their mind, body, and soul with the gardens’ bountiful harvests.