Blog for April 2011 | UnLtd India

Unltd India

Fresh and Local’s Earth Day Challenge 2011 creates edible landscapes in the city

UnLtd India investee organization Fresh and Local transformed the Bombay HUB Terrace Garden as part of its Earth Day 2011 Challenge.
One of Bombay HUB's most unique features is our terrace garden. It's a space for HUB members and event attendees to connect with nature within the city. First installed a year ago, the new terrace garden now reflects their research into water- and space-saving techniques. In a week’s time they redeveloped the terrace space from start to finish. Friends of Fresh and Local who volunteered to join in this challenge gained practical gardening experience and received a sneak peek into the work in progress.

The new garden model adopts methods such as vertical gardening, square foot gardening, sub-irrigated pots, and is accentuated with an organic nursery and a baby tea garden.

On Friday, April 22 they hosted an Open House in the new space sharing their creation with guests over tea and cookies. Visitors to the garden were taken on a guided tour strolling through fruit trees and a crop of warm season vegetables.

Fresh and Local’s Earth Day Challenge was covered in Mumbai Mirror outlining Karen, Adrienne, and Catie’s journey into promoting local produce. As Karen put it “Many things made us want to start Fresh and Local. If you look at the world, 25 per cent of the population is hungry and a high percentage of it is obese. We need fresh and nutritious food in cities today.”

The trio regularly conducts workshops in Basic and Advanced gardening at Bombay HUB. It’s an initiative towards developing edible landscapes in urban settings. To join in the social movement of urban gardening with Fresh & Local team, reach them at freshandlocal@gmail.com

What People Are Saying About UnLtd India

For us, UnLtd India's support in mentoring, vision building, building our capacity to deliver, moving from a particular level to the next level, as a business, as an enterprise -- I think those are the big things.

- Vijaya Pastala, Under the Mango Tree

Going into this, I had no management experience; I didn't know how to run an organization. That's where UnLtd India's support has been invaluable.

- Pooja Taparia, Arpan

"Unreasonable Visionaries" is the term I use for UnLtd India investees. They are visionaries with a passion for change and are unreasonable because they refuse to accept obstacles in their course. I am extremely happy with my decision to be on the panel.

- Suman Srivastava, Former CEO at Euro RSCG

I am infected by the energy of UnLtd India investees. They are extremely passionate about the cause they choose and go after it with all seriousness. I have truly enjoyed working with them.

- Amitabh Mall, Principal at The Boston Consulting Group

The incubation team has helped me put systems in place and boost my targeted budget from 1 to 7 lakh rupees. Interacting with other investees has pushed me to think about my community and approach partnerships in new ways. Other investees think big, so I do too.

- Ashok Rathod, Oscar

Every new organisation faces challenges. Every day you wake up and there are more headaches, more things that will go wrong, more cash flow issues. But the peers we work with at UnLtd India give us the confidence to continue.

- Will Muir, Equal Community Foundation

The support from UnLtd India has pushed my team to develop more innovate methods of teaching. Personally, I'm much more confident in pitching my idea, identifying the support I need and then asking others for real guidance.

- Ramesh Joshi, Aashansh