Desiree’ Sims knows firsthand the impact of growing your own food. She experienced food insecurity as a child and mainly ate processed meals during her upbringing.
This led her to create Peas and Love Edible Gardening Co., an organization that helps people in the Tampa Bay area plant vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers. The business also offers community classes, gardening consultations and coaching services.
Sims applied for the City of St. Petersburg’s MLK Communities in Action Mini-Grant Program and proposed to create gardens for three St. Pete-based individuals or families. She received approval by the end of December.
Work for the project is underway, Sims said. Currently, she is in the process of selecting recipients. Two have already been chosen, including a family of seven people.
Sims additionally is starting to prepare material lists for the gardens and determining where to purchase the supplies.
Each garden is vertical, takes up only two feet of space and houses 24 plants. Recipients can select what they want to grow based on a seasonal list, she explained.
Options include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries and kale.
A vertical garden created by Peas and Love.
Creating gardens is a passion for Sims. She began to grow her own vegetables in college.
“My earliest memory was looking out of the screen glass door of our apartment and seeing a vegetable garden there,” Sims explained. “So, when I started college and started learning about health and different changes I could make for my community, that was a solution that resonated with me.”
She would eventually volunteer and create community gardens in different neighborhoods, for nearly 13 years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, her regular job became obsolete.
Sims realized that this was an opportunity to follow her dreams and “do something that people really need and want.”
There are many benefits to growing your own food, she explained. Health is a key factor.
“That can look different for different people,” Sims said. “It gets you outside, gets you moving and you’re in the fresh air and sunshine – and that’s before you actually eat any of the healthy food that you’re growing.”
Gardens can also have social benefits. She believes that they “bring people together” and help create bonding.
For Sims, it’s all about becoming more self-sustaining.
“I want to actually teach people how to garden and grow their own food instead of them relying on me as their personal gardener or relying on another system,” she explained. “I want this knowledge to be well known again. It’s only been a couple of generations since people were growing most of their own food.”