Birmingham's empty lots and parks hold untapped potential. We're ready to start reclaiming vacant lots — healing the soil, planting the seeds, and growing thriving edible ecosystems that feed families, build community wealth, and secure a healthier future for generations to come.
Mission: Eradicating Food Insecurity Through Urban Edible Ecosystems
The Sabali Gordon Forest of Food for All
At just 10 years old, Sabali Gordon questioned why there are so many hungry people all over the world when there are so many places to grow fruit trees and vegetables. Her refusal to accept food insecurity as inevitable led to a learning opportunity. This included thinking about and researching ways to solve food insecruity. The result was this hihgly viable iniative. At Prodigy Academy we work with students to create real world projects and then we go a step further than thoughts and papers and we execute. Sabali's story is a testament that environmental leadership and social justice have no age requirement. She will work with professionals be present to observe pitches and watch her idea come to life all while learning to work with a team, gaining real world experience and learning core curriculum requirements.
Sabali dreamed of fruit trees lining her own streets, garden beds spilling over with vegetables, and neighbors sharing harvests instead of hunger. That dream has been formalized into theThe Sabali Gordon Forest of Food for All Iniative — a living, replicable framework for transforming vacant lots into thriving edible ecosystems. The Blueprint encompasses soil remediation protocols, fruit-bearing tree and plant species selection, seasonal planting calendars, community events and education, micro businesses utilizing excess harvest and zero waste down to composting systems.
At the heart of the design is the revolutionary "Fence Line Drip" system a precisely engineered drip irrigation network installed along the perimeter fences of each forest. This approach ensures that fresh fruit and vegetables are not locked away behind barriers, but instead grow outward toward the sidewalk, making harvest accessible to every passerby. A grandmother walking home, a child on the way to school, a family without a car who cannot reach a distant grocery store; all are fed by what grows at the fence line.
The multi-generational impact is gauranteed: children who plant a peach tree today will bring their own children to harvest from it in fifteen years. Prodigy Academy will partner with each forest site to deliver outdoor science and nutrition education. Elderly residents — many of whom once grew food — find renewed purpose as master gardeners and community teachers. Local entrepreneurs process and sell surplus harvest, creating micro-economies rooted in fresh food. Families who once spent 30% of their income on groceries at distant convenience stores begin to eat fresher, spend less, and live longer. This is what it looks like when a 10-year-old refuses to stop dreaming and is given academic support based on ability not age. Read more about Sabali's Iniative Below.
A Blueprint for Abundance: The Sabali Gordon Food Forest Plan
The Sabali Gordon Forest of Food for All Initiative is a comprehensive plan designed to holistically transform urban landscapes and communities. It outlines every step from soil remediation to community governance, ensuring sustainable, equitable food systems.
Fresh Food Production
Each forest teems with a variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, making fresh, healthy produce accessible. Combating food deserts by bringing food to the people.
Vibrant Community Hubs
These food forests become natural gathering places, hosting seasonal festivals, harvest celebrations, and educational workshops. They foster intergenerational connections, with elderly residents sharing traditional growing wisdom and children learning about nutrition and environmental stewardship.
Empowering Local Economies
Designated community kitchens facilitate the processing of surplus harvests into value-added products like jams, preserves, and dried goods. This creates micro-entrepreneurship opportunities, generating income and strengthening local food economies rooted in fresh, healthy produce.
Eradicating Food Insecurity
By transforming vacant lots into productive edible ecosystems, the plan directly addresses food insecurity. It provides a reliable, no-cost source of nutritious food in areas previously underserved, significantly reducing grocery expenses for families and improving overall community health.
Economic Opportunities: The Full Ecosystem That Grows From Food Forests
A food forest is not merely a place to grow food — it is a living economic engine. The Sabali Gordon Forest of Food for All Initiative is designed from the ground up to generate cascading economic benefits that ripple outward from each site into the surrounding neighborhood, creating jobs, building wealth, reducing household expenses, and attracting investment. What begins with a seed becomes a self-sustaining community enterprise.
Value-Added Products: Transforming Harvests Into Revenue
Surplus harvest — the fruit that exceeds what neighbors can consume fresh — becomes the raw material for an array of marketable goods produced in community processing kitchens co-located at each forest site.
Preserved & Jarred Goods:
- Artisan jams, jellies, and fruit butters — slow-cooked in small batches from peak-season stone fruits and berries, bursting with concentrated flavor; gift-worthy in hand-labeled jars that command $8–$14 at farmers markets
- Pickled vegetables, relishes, and ferments — tangy, crunchy, probiotic-rich classics like dill okra, spiced carrots, and kimchi-style greens that draw on global preservation traditions and sell briskly to health-conscious shoppers
- Salsas, hot sauces, and chutneys — vibrant, bold condiments crafted from heirloom peppers, tomatillos, and tropical fruits; versatile kitchen staples with cult-favorite potential and long shelf lives of 12–18 months
- Fruit preserves and compotes — silky, spreadable blends of fig, persimmon, and citrus that elevate everything from morning toast to charcuterie boards, beloved by restaurant buyers and home cooks alike
Dried & Shelf-Stable Items:
- Sun-dried and dehydrated fruits and herbs — intensely sweet mango slices, chewy apple rings, and crisp herb flakes that retain nutrients for up to two years, making them ideal for pantry staples and subscription box markets
- Herbal tea blends and tisanes — fragrant, hand-crafted blends of lemon balm, tulsi, elderflower, and mint that brew into calming, flavorful cups; beautifully packaged for the growing $3B+ wellness tea market
- Spice mixes and seasoning blends — aromatic dry rubs, sofrito bases, and herb salts that carry the forest's terroir into home kitchens, priced accessibly at $5–$9 and popular as stocking-stuffer gifts
- Granolas and trail mixes with local fruit — hearty, wholesome snack blends studded with dehydrated berries, local honey, and toasted seeds — a natural fit for school lunch programs, co-ops, and specialty grocery shelves
Medicinal & Wellness Products:
- Herbal tinctures, salves, and balms — potent plant-based remedies like calendula healing salve and mullein ear oil, handcrafted in small batches and trusted by herbalists and natural health seekers willing to pay $15–$30 per unit
- Elderberry syrup and immune tonics — rich, dark, honey-sweetened syrups beloved by parents for children's cold season; one of the fastest-growing categories in the natural wellness market, with consistent year-round demand
- Aromatherapy products from edible herbs — steam-distilled lavender and peppermint sprays, herbal sachets, and room mists that transform everyday spaces into sensory sanctuaries, bridging the food and self-care markets
- Botanical skincare and body oils — luxurious, food-grade rosehip facial oils, shea-herb body butters, and herbal face mists that celebrate the forest's bounty in beauty form; premium packaging supports $20–$45 retail pricing
Thriving Food Forests: Nurturing Biodiversity and Pollinators
Each Sabali Gordon Forest is a dynamic, living ecosystem designed to maximize food production while fostering rich local biodiversity. Native bees, butterflies, and countless other pollinators are woven into the very fabric of this vibrant life — ensuring healthy harvests, ecological resilience, and extraordinary economic opportunity for the surrounding community.
Pollinator Paradise
Native bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and moths are actively encouraged through strategic planting of flowering species that bloom in succession across all seasons. This ensures a continuous nectar and pollen supply, supporting diverse pollinator populations year-round and delivering abundant fruit yields throughout the food forest.
Rich Biodiversity Beyond Pollination
A thriving food forest does far more than feed pollinators. Dense canopy layers, shrubs, and ground cover create interlocking habitats for birds, beneficial insects, and small mammals. Predatory insects naturally control pests, reducing the need for any interventions. Fungi and microbial networks in the soil cycle nutrients, while deep-rooted perennial plants improve water infiltration and prevent erosion — a self-regulating ecosystem that strengthens with every passing season.
Ecosystem Services for the Whole Neighborhood
The ecological benefits extend well beyond the forest's borders. Urban heat island effects are reduced as tree canopies shade streets and buildings. Stormwater is absorbed and filtered through layered root systems. Air quality improves as plants sequester carbon and filter particulates. Neighboring gardens and farms benefit from spillover pollinator populations, multiplying the food forest's positive impact across the entire community.
Supporting Wild Bees — Without Traditional Hives
Rather than confining bees to managed industrial hives, Sabali Gordon forests champion wild and semi-wild bee husbandry. For honey-producing colonies there are existing systems that can be implemented allowing bees to build comb freely on their own terms. Honey is harvested only from surplus comb; never extracting in ways that strip the colony of its winter stores. This approach keeps colonies healthy, stress-free, and deeply embedded in the ecosystem.
The Full Bounty of the Hive: Products Beyond Honey
When wild bee populations flourish in a food forest, they generate a remarkable range of products — each with real economic and community value. Sustainable harvesting of surplus bee products creates meaningful income streams while leaving colonies thriving and intact.
🍯 Raw Honey
Harvested from surplus comb, food forest honey carries the complex flavors of dozens of blooming plant species — a distinct, place-specific product with premium market value. Sold fresh, infused with herbs, or blended with spices, it becomes a flagship product representing the food forest itself.
🕯️ Beeswax Candles & Wraps
Pure beeswax from harvested comb is rendered into candles, lip balms, salves, and reusable food wraps.Food wraps made from beeswax-coated cloth are a popular plastic-free alternative — both products are easily made in community kitchens with minimal equipment.
🌿 Propolis Tinctures
Bees collect plant resins and transform them into propolis, a powerful antimicrobial compound used to seal and protect the hive.Propolis tinctures command high prices in natural health markets and require very little raw material.
👑 Royal Jelly & Pollen
Royal jelly, produced by worker bees to feed queens and larvae, is one of the most nutrient-dense substances in nature. It is used in health supplements and skincare. Bee pollen, is a protein-rich superfood sold fresh or dried, adding another premium product to the food forest's offerings.
Economic Opportunities Rooted in the Ecosystem
The pollinator economy of a Sabali Gordon Food Forest creates a cascading set of livelihoods and enterprises — all emerging naturally from a healthy, thriving ecosystem.
Artisan Product Markets
Community members trained in sustainable harvesting can produce and sell a full line of forest-derived bee products — from raw wildflower honey and beeswax candles to propolis tinctures and pollen granules — at farmers' markets, online stores, and through local food cooperatives.
Workshops & Ecotourism
The food forest becomes a living classroom. Paid workshops in wild bee husbandry, natural beekeeping, candle-making, and natural health products attract urban dwellers eager to reconnect with ecological practices. Schools, community groups, and wellness tourists visit to learn and participate.
Pollination Services
Robust wild bee populations in food forests naturally overflow into surrounding urban gardens, allotments, and small farms — improving yields for neighboring growers. Over time, organized pollination partnerships with local urban farms can formalize this benefit into a community service with shared economic returns.
Skincare & Wellness Brands
With access to beeswax, propolis, honey, and royal jelly, community entrepreneurs can launch small-batch skincare lines — lip balms, healing salves, face serums, and moisturizers — all rooted in the identity and story of the food forest. These carry powerful narratives of community, ecology, and place.
Natural Pest Control: A Healthier Urban Environment & Economic Opportunity
Sabali's Food Forests are not just about food — they are integrated pest management ecosystems. By weaving natural plant defenses throughout every layer of the forest, we create healthier, more comfortable urban spaces that dramatically reduce reliance on chemical solutions. This shift away from synthetic pesticides generates profound cost savings, new revenue streams, improved public health outcomes, and meaningful livelihoods for the surrounding community.
The Three Pillars of Natural Pest Control
🌿 Mosquito Solutions
Citronella, marigolds, lemon balm, lavender, and basil are strategically planted throughout the forest to naturally deter mosquitoes — enhancing comfort for residents without harmful chemical sprays. These plants work continuously, season after season, requiring no reapplication or purchase.
🐀 Rodent Repellents
Peppermint, spearmint, and other aromatic mint varieties are planted at key entry points and boundaries to discourage unwanted rodents from colonizing the space. A chemical-free perimeter that maintains a clean, safe environment for children, pets, and wildlife alike.
⚖️ Balanced Ecosystems
Predatory insects — lacewings, ladybirds, ground beetles — are attracted by companion planting of fennel, dill, and yarrow. These natural predators keep aphid, whitefly, and caterpillar populations in check, eliminating the need for any chemical intervention and maintaining a self-regulating pest balance.
Product Opportunities: Turning Pest-Repelling Plants into Revenue
The same plants that protect the food forest and surrounding community are also high-value raw materials for a range of natural products. Community members trained in sustainable harvesting and simple processing can develop viable enterprises from these abundant botanical resources.
🌱 Essential Oils
Citronella, lemon balm, peppermint, lavender, and basil can be steam-distilled into pure essential oils — among the most commercially valuable plant products available. A small community still can process significant volumes of fresh plant material into premium oils sold to natural health retailers, online markets, and aromatherapy practitioners. Citronella and peppermint oils command particularly strong prices due to their wide applications in pest control, cleaning products, and personal care.
🌸 Dried Herb Bundles & Sachets
Dried bundles of mint, lavender, rosemary, and bay leaf are a simple, low-investment product with strong market appeal. Sold as natural wardrobe sachets, kitchen moth repellents, or decorative smudge bundles, they require minimal processing and appeal to eco-conscious consumers seeking plastic-free home solutions. These can be packaged beautifully and sold at markets, gift shops, and online with high margins.
🧴 Natural Insect Repellent Sprays & Balms
Plant-derived repellents — combining citronella, lemon eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender in carrier oils or water-based sprays — are in high and growing demand as consumers seek DEET-free alternatives. Community kitchens can produce roll-on balms, spray bottles, and candles formulated with food-forest-grown botanicals, positioning them as locally made, traceable, and ecologically sound alternatives to commercial products.
🏠 Aromatic Home & Garden Products
Scented candles, room sprays, linen waters, and garden pest-control concentrates made from food-forest botanicals create a full product range for the natural home market. Peppermint garden sprays deter aphids and rodents; lavender linen sprays serve dual pest-deterrent and aromatherapy functions. These products carry compelling stories of community, ecology, and local production — powerful marketing advantages in today's conscious consumer marketplace.
🌿 Herbal Teas & Culinary Herbs
Many pest-repelling plants are also culinary and medicinal herbs with strong retail demand. Lemon balm, peppermint, and lavender dried teas; fresh herb bundles for cooking; and herbal infusions add further product diversity. These overlap with the food forest's core food production mission, creating additional revenue from the same plants serving pest management functions.
🧼 Natural Cleaning & Personal Care
Peppermint and citronella extracts are key ingredients in natural cleaning products — surface sprays, washing additives, and insect-deterrent household cleaners. Community enterprises can produce small-batch, biodegradable cleaning ranges that replace petrochemical products, appealing to households seeking safer, environmentally responsible alternatives with a local provenance story.
The Compounding Value of Chemical-Free Urban Living
Property value uplift
Potential increase in residential property values adjacent to well-managed chemical-free green spaces
Product lines
Distinct natural product categories generatable from pest-repelling food forest botanicals
Abatement cost reduction
Potential reduction in municipal mosquito abatement spending in food-forest-adjacent areas
Economic Opportunities: Market Channels & Entrepreneurship Opportunities
Community members — including youth entrepreneurs supported by Prodigy Academy — gain access to multiple channels to bring their products to market, building real business experience alongside real income.
Farmers Markets & Pop-Up Stands
Forest-branded booths at local markets sell fresh produce, value-added goods, and honey products. Youth vendors learn pricing, customer service, and financial management firsthand. A single well-stocked market table can generate $300–$800 per market day.
Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Subscriptions
Residents and nearby households subscribe seasonally to weekly harvest boxes, providing the forest with predictable revenue and families with an affordable fresh-food supply chain. Weekly boxes priced at $20–$35 can generate thousands per season per forest site.
Local Restaurant & Café Partnerships
Chefs and restaurant owners actively seek hyper-local, story-driven ingredients. Food forest harvests become premium menu items. Forest-to-fork partnerships provide consistent bulk purchasing agreements, stabilizing revenue and elevating the community's profile.
Online & Subscription Sales
Branded e-commerce storefronts allow value-added products to reach buyers beyond the immediate neighborhood, scaling revenue without scaling physical operations.
Job Creation & Workforce Development
Job Creation Across the Full Ecosystem
Each food forest site generates employment at every level of skill and experience, from entry-level to credentialed professional roles — all rooted in the local community.
Forest Stewardship
Arborists, horticulturalists, and trained community stewards manage pruning, soil health, composting systems, irrigation maintenance, and seasonal planting schedules.
Harvest Coordination
Harvest coordinators organize volunteer and paid picking crews, manage produce inventory, coordinate distribution logistics, and reduce waste through real-time tracking of ripening schedules.
Processing Facility Workers
Kitchen staff operate community processing facilities — washing, prepping, cooking, canning, dehydrating, and packaging value-added goods according to food safety standards.
Education Program Facilitators
Educators, naturalists, and community leaders are hired to run school programs, adult workshops, youth apprenticeships, and certification training courses held at the forest sites.
Skills Training & Workforce Development
The food forest is a living classroom. Structured training programs transform participation into credentials, opening doors to careers in urban agriculture, food systems, entrepreneurship, and environmental stewardship.
Urban Agriculture Certification
Partnering with community colleges and workforce agencies, the initiative calls for accredited programs in urban farming, permaculture design, soil science, and integrated pest management — skills that qualify graduates for employment across the growing urban agriculture sector.
Food Processing & Safety Training
Participants earn ServSafe and food handler certifications while learning commercial-scale preservation, fermentation, and product development — credentials that open doors to food industry employment beyond the forest itself.
Small Business Development
With plans for partnership with SCORE mentors, SBA resources, and local CDFIs, aspiring entrepreneurs receive business planning support, financial literacy training, branding guidance, and access to microloans — turning community members into business owners.
Community Impact & Financial Benefits
Perhaps the most immediate and life-changing economic impact is what families stop spending. For households that have historically spent 25–35% of their income on groceries — often at distant convenience stores with inflated prices and limited fresh options — the food forest delivers immediate, measurable financial relief.
Monthly Savings
Estimated average monthly grocery savings per household living within walking distance of an active food forest site.
Annual Impact
Annual household savings equivalent — money that stays in families' hands and recirculates into the local economy through other spending.
Diet Improvement
Studies of existing urban food growing communities document up to 35% increases in fresh fruit and vegetable consumption among participating households.
Tourism, Education & Agritourism Revenue
A thriving food forest is a destination. As each site matures and gains recognition, it attracts visitors, learners, and partners from beyond the immediate neighborhood — generating revenue that flows back into forest operations and community programming.
Educational Revenue Streams:
- School field trip programs serving K–12 students ($10–$20 per student)
- Weekend workshops on foraging, fermentation, beekeeping, and cooking
- Corporate team-building and community service day partnerships
- University research partnerships and paid site access for academic study
Agritourism Experiences:
- Seasonal harvest festivals open to the public with ticketed entry
- Guided forest tours highlighting design, species, and community story
- Farm-to-table pop-up dinners hosted within the forest
- Photography, wellness, and nature immersion experiences
Neighborhood Property Value & Community Investment
Research consistently demonstrates that green infrastructure — particularly community gardens and food forests — increases surrounding property values. A 2016 study found that community gardens increased property values within 1,000 feet by an average of 9.4%, with effects growing stronger over time as sites mature. Beyond individual property gains, food forests signal neighborhood revitalization, attracting further public and private investment in infrastructure, housing, and commercial development.
Funding & Long-Term Sustainability
The food forest model is uniquely positioned to access a wide range of public, philanthropic, and impact investment funding — creating a diversified financial foundation that ensures long-term sustainability.
Grant Funding & Social Enterprise Pathways
Federal & State Grants:
USDA Community Food Projects grants, EPA environmental justice funding, HUD Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), and state agriculture department programs all target exactly the kind of community-rooted food access work the initiative represents.
Philanthropic & Foundation Funding:
Major foundations focused on food justice, environmental equity, youth development, and urban health are natural funders. The compelling story of a 10-year-old visionary provides a powerful narrative that resonates with mission-aligned donors.
Social Enterprise & Impact Investment:
As the model proves out, it becomes investable as a social enterprise — attracting Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) loans, Program-Related Investments (PRIs) from foundations, and ESG-focused corporate sponsors seeking measurable community impact.
Carbon & Biodiversity Credits:
Emerging voluntary carbon markets and biodiversity credit programs recognize the sequestration and habitat value of urban food forests — creating an entirely new revenue stream simply for stewarding the land well.
THE BIG PICTURE: A single food forest site, fully operational, has the realistic potential to generate $50,000–$150,000+ annually in combined revenue streams — from product sales, educational programming, market partnerships, and grants — while simultaneously saving the surrounding community hundreds of thousands of dollars in avoided food costs. This is not charity. This is a new urban economic model, born from the imagination of a 10-year-old who simply refused to accept that hunger was inevitable.
Neighborhood Food Forest Constellations & Scaling the Vision
Beyond Isolated Sites
Instead of single plots, the initiative develops "constellations" of micro-food forests, pocket orchards, and treatment-train sites within a one-mile walking radius — creating continuous edible corridors between schools, churches, and transit stops.
- Edible Transit Routes: Planting along school walking routes and bus corridors turns right-of-way strips into edible waiting areas with berries, herbs, and shade trees.
- Resilience Micro-Zones: Select hubs designated with backup solar, cold storage, and emergency food reserves — functioning as cooling and nourishment centers during heat waves or power outages.
- Rapid Replication: Standardized site preparation allows new sites to launch every 60–90 days once initial operations are established.
Strategic Alignment with Birmingham's Future
The Birmingham Bio-Resilience Initiative aligns directly with municipal priorities: addressing historical environmental injustices, expanding urban agriculture, and building a future-ready Birmingham. It supports the Central Alabama Climate Action Plan (CACAP) and the "Sovereign Birmingham" initiative, which aim to increase fresh food access for the 70% of residents currently living in food deserts.
By leveraging proven phytoremediation science, circular bioeconomy principles, and student-led innovation, this initiative transforms vacant lots from municipal liabilities into revenue-generating community assets — fully self-sustaining within seven years, requiring no ongoing city funding.
Food Desert Residents
Birmingham residents lacking fresh food access
Acres Available
City land available through the Land Bank
ARPA Funds
Allocated for blight removal citywide
Join the Movement for Food Justice
The Birmingham Bio-Resilience Initiative is more than just a plan; it's a living blueprint for urban abundance, ecological health, and profound community transformation. By fostering self-sustaining food forests, we're not only eradicating food insecurity but also cultivating economic opportunities and a healthier, more connected city for all.
This innovative model, rooted in both environmental science and social enterprise, promises a future where vacant lots become vibrant community assets. Your support is crucial to realize this vision and build a resilient Birmingham, one thriving food forest at a time.
The Birmingham Bio-Resilience Initiative