Help Us Bring Back Your Favorite Basil!

Vested Urban Farm’s greenhouse was severely damaged in the wake of the EF3 tornado that cut through North St. Louis City on an otherwise beautiful Friday afternoon, May 16. First and foremost, our team is safe and physically unharmed. We had most of our staff on-site that afternoon, and they were able to huddle in the walk-in cooler for (a LONG!) ten minutes to avoid any harm. What the team witnessed upon emerging from the cooler was breathtaking.

The physical damage to the greenhouse was a combination of wind damage (pulling four 20-foot roof panels and a 15-foot steel garage door off the building) and projectile damage (including a window and frame from the Urban League building crashing through our wet wall). The storm also knocked over about 20% of our aeroponic growing towers, and the flying dust and debris resulted in a total loss of our basil crop. While our facility sustained substantial damage, we were spared much of the catastrophic destruction that we witnessed just outside the greenhouse on the Urban League campus.

After assessing the damage, checking on the well-being of our team, and considering the way forward, we concluded two things: our crop was a total loss, and we want to get back to customers as early as June 30. To meet this timeline, we have a bold action plan. We believe it is achievable with the support of our friends, customers, vendors, and partners.

RESILIENCE = RECOVER + RESTORE + REPAIR + RE-LAUNCH

As the 19th-century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, "That which does not kill you makes you stronger." We had a front-row seat to how a deadly storm ripped apart buildings and devastated lives around us. We've been proud to watch our team pull together and support one another in the effort to secure, repair, clean, and sanitize our greenhouse, and get it back in operation. Both inside our walls, through the quick and decisive thinking of our lead farmers on that day, and in the adjoining community, through selfless acts of heroism, we have borne witness to the resilience of the human spirit and the inspiration of a team standing shoulder to shoulder to attack the challenge of restoring this business.

As a new urban farm, we have limited capital and no profits to draw from to help recover from this crisis. Your tax-deductible donations can help us close gaps in our insurance coverage and ensure we can keep our team members employed as we wait for our seeds to grow into basil that can be harvested, packaged, and delivered to our customers!

Thank you for your consideration and support as we grow plants and people together!