In 2022, EDP helped create, in Serra, in Espírito Santo, Brazil, a community garden on a 1000m² plot of land, generating new opportunities for local residents.

Ideas that feed / Planting hope

EDP, partnered with Atitude Inicial, Incaper and Serra City Hall, helped transform a 1000m² plot of land, where EDP’s transmission lines pass - until then used for improper open-air garbage disposal - into a community vegetable garden.

The project involved and benefited the Ourimar community, in Serra, Espírito Santo (Brazil), which participated in all phases, from land preparation to food planting.

The work began in November 2021, with awareness-raising workshops to promote the involvement and training of community members. This was followed by the removal of waste from the land, illegally deposited over time, the fencing of the space, the preparation of the soil for planting, and the construction of a well for irrigating the crops, among other improvements.

The volunteers, who saw in this project an opportunity to build something for the community, participated in the whole process, including preparing the beds, planting the seeds, and maintaining the community garden.

As the project unfolded the articulation among the different members and the community mobilization increased the sense of ownership of the space, transforming it, above all, into a place to live together.

In addition to the community garden, the volunteers also plan to develop other activities on the site, such as the cultivation of medicinal plants, the production of seedlings of native species, and non-conventional food plants, among others.

Among the direct benefits of this project is also the reduction of costs (estimated in about 1.5 million Brazilian reais per month), of the City Hall of Serra, associated to the collection of waste illegally deposited in the intervened land.