The land WE Monrovians bought in the foothills still has not found consensus on its use. Part of that property was used as growing grounds by Rosedales years ago, so there is a botanical history there already.
It has been suggested by future environmental thinkers that every city should have as one of its primary goals for development that communities try to become as independent in all areas as much as possible. Energy and water come to mind right away, but food should be a concern as well.
We are fortunate that we have some of the world's leaders in agriculture and plant development close by.So the resources for such a project are not an issue.
We have a Monrovia Garden Club, and lots of retired folks and others that have a passion for gardening. Gardening is great exercise which is a plus for volunteers as well. We have a local transit system that can help with transportation for seniors, etc. Our city has one of the best Street Fairs where some of the items could be sold to help supplement the garden to make it self sufficient. However, the primary focus would be to provide food to those in our city that are less fortunate, and we already have a distribution organization for that as well.
Further, as the project evolves I could also see that another function could be added so that volunteers could be called upon by our citizens to collect fruit from trees in our residential neighborhoods that would otherwise go to waste.
There are plenty of other off shoots to help the environment as well as educational opportunities for our schools. I see it as a great win-win project that could serve as a model for all other cities to copy.