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2-27-23 Attachment AGood evening. I am representing the Arts and Recreation committee tonight. On February 14th students from Mayport Coastal Sciences Middle School attended the monthly ARC meeting and presented a request for funds to enhance the community garden at the school. You can see their presentation because it was, of course, recorded at the meeting. It occurs about 15 minutes into the meeting. It was about 10 minutes long and followed by an informative question and answer period fielded by Ms. Jill Jenkins, assistant principal at the school. Because I know your time is valuable, I am going to summarize their presentation as quickly as I can and ask that you approve this request by the ARC committee to spend funds to support the expansion of the garden and outdoor classroom. All the members of the ARC committee voted to approve this request. The garden presently consists of 13 raised beds and three picnic tables. They would like to expand to 31 raised beds and 6 picnic tables so all students can be seated at once. They would also like to add a sun shield so students can get out of the sun on their breaks and amphitheater style seating in another area to accommodate guest speakers and family education classes. There are 900 students at the school. Around 450 come from the 32233 zip code. About 25 percent come from military families. Presently 250 students use the garden daily. (This is actually just the entry level class, as there are classes on aquaponics and they use fish effluent to fertilize the gardens, but I promised to keep this short, so I am not even going to go into all that. ) Expanding the number of beds would allow each group of students to care for their own garden bed. Fresh vegetables are sent home with each student in the class and they would like to double the amount of fresh veg sent home. The goal for next school year is 12,000 pounds. The amount of money they are requesting is just under $9,468. ARC has $18K left from the community grants which will more than cover the request. The main items are the picnic tables, the sun shield, a garden shed and amphitheater -style seating for the wildflower garden so it can be used as a community outdoor theater and presentation space. As you know, the Mayport corridor is considered a food desert. This grant will help alleviate that drought in two ways, it will actually contribute food to family tables, and it will teach a generation of citizens skills to help remediate that lack in the future. I am just going to say that again, because it is the most important idea here. This grant will help mitigate the lack of fresh food available on the Mayport corridor and teach hundreds of our citizens how to supplement their diet with fresh healthy food they grow themselves. I have provided a photo of the beds as they were when I last visited. You can see that they survived the freeze better than many of the yards in my neighborhood. You can see the concrete pad in the background that will be covered with the sunshield. It can easily accommodate the additional picnic tables. We have contacted the Oceanside Rotary and they have shown interest in helping the students access resources to revamp the garden this May if these materials are provided, so we would like to have the request approved as soon as possible. Budget summary of the 4 largest items. Item Cost Total Cost Picnic tables 1042.43 for 3 Poles for sunshade 1619.91 for 4 Garden benches 3209.5 for 25 Garden shed 1492.71 for 1 With other items the total is $9468. Again, we have this amount in the ARC grant fund. We are asking for authorization to spend it on this project. Thank you for your time. 47_-.—•sem... ;��'` .- :�� _. _ � ��A�'^`E ��r !.'v._;.+s Picnic Tables Price https•//www homedepot.com/p/Dura-Trel-6-ft- White-Vinyl-Patio-Picnic-Table- 11114/205710823 347.41 10 ft Stainless steel poles for sun shade 179.99 https;//www.amazon.com/dp/BO9MQJFFQ2? encoding=UTF8&ref =cm sw r cp ud dp 5F KA21S4PM3XHAH N 1XY0&th=1 Sun Shade Sail 12 by 16 69.24 Cinder Blocks https://www. homedepot.com/p/8-in-x-8-in-x- 16-i n -Concrete -Block -1001924/202323962 Garden Compost Number 3 from Earth Works per yard (Wild Earth Mix) Delivery Fee for Garden Dirt Earth Works Garden Benches for by the Octopus Garden https•//www.homedepot.com/p/3-ft-Cedar-Fir- Wood-Log-Wood-Curved-Bench-Rustic-Style- Backless-Bench-For-Backyard-Natural-KD-W F - D21/319823439 Garden Shed https://www. homedepot.com/p/Lifetime-8-ft- W-x-10-ft-D-Plastic-Outd oor-Storage-Shed-71- 7-sq-ft-60371/3 21072364. GRAND TOTAL (does not include tax) ADDITIONS? Sakrete 50 Ib bags (for pole bases) https://www. homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-50- b-Fast-Set-Concrete-Mix- 65305535/100350261 Composter https•//www.homedepot.com/p/140-gal-3- Stage-Compost-Bin-Aeroplus-6000/204722037 Miscellaneous anchor bolts and hardware TOTAL 1 Quantity Sub total 3 1042.43 9 1619.91 4 276.96 2.47 200 494 70 6 420 50 2 100 128.38 25 3209.5 1492.71 1 1492.71 $8,655.51 6.66 50 333 $369.49 1 $369.49 100 100 $9,468.00 LO htt s: www.homede ot.com COLOURTREE 12 -ft -x -16 -ft -190 -GSM -Grey -Recta ngle-Sun- Shade-Sail-with-Rectangle-Kit-kit-TAPR 1216 - Cinder Blocks https://www. homedepot.com/p/8-in-x-8-in-x- 16-i n -Concrete -Block -1001924/202323962 Garden Compost Number 3 from Earth Works per yard (Wild Earth Mix) Delivery Fee for Garden Dirt Earth Works Garden Benches for by the Octopus Garden https•//www.homedepot.com/p/3-ft-Cedar-Fir- Wood-Log-Wood-Curved-Bench-Rustic-Style- Backless-Bench-For-Backyard-Natural-KD-W F - D21/319823439 Garden Shed https://www. homedepot.com/p/Lifetime-8-ft- W-x-10-ft-D-Plastic-Outd oor-Storage-Shed-71- 7-sq-ft-60371/3 21072364. GRAND TOTAL (does not include tax) ADDITIONS? Sakrete 50 Ib bags (for pole bases) https://www. homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-50- b-Fast-Set-Concrete-Mix- 65305535/100350261 Composter https•//www.homedepot.com/p/140-gal-3- Stage-Compost-Bin-Aeroplus-6000/204722037 Miscellaneous anchor bolts and hardware TOTAL 1 Quantity Sub total 3 1042.43 9 1619.91 4 276.96 2.47 200 494 70 6 420 50 2 100 128.38 25 3209.5 1492.71 1 1492.71 $8,655.51 6.66 50 333 $369.49 1 $369.49 100 100 $9,468.00 LO