Produce genuinely useful food.
Grow plants that can meaningfully supplement foods people ordinarily purchase.
FIRST APPLICATION ROUND BEING PREPARED
Edible Commons
Part pantry, part park and part outdoor classroom. A local food-access and education project that turns underused, publicly accessible land into places where people can learn about, harvest and use edible plants.
The project
Start with one useful place.
The first hub will be one manageable site where edible plants are deliberately grown, clearly identified and responsibly shared. It may be on public or private property, but the owner or authorized leaseholder must approve it and meaningful public access must be real.
The two goals of Edible Commons
Teach people how to use it.
Help people recognize, prepare, value and incorporate locally available edible plants into everyday life.
What makes a hub
A place people can actually use.
A hub is publicly accessible land intentionally propagated with edible plants. Publicly accessible does not have to mean publicly owned.
Open
Genuinely accessible to the public.
Edible
Intentionally planted with useful food plants.
Locally rooted
Louisiana-native edible species used as much as practical.
Explained
Clear, safe information about what grows there and how to use it.
Built to continue
Low-maintenance plants and a site that does not need a permanent caretaker.
Shared
Normally open to responsible public harvesting.
The public pledge
$2,000 net shop profit → $500 for local projects
For every $2,000 in net profit generated by the OverDevelopment shop, $500 will be dedicated to local projects.
Net profit means shop revenue remaining after normal and legitimate expenses are paid. Edible Commons will receive the first funding under this commitment. Later allocations may support Edible Commons or other local projects.
The first hub
Small enough to learn from. Useful enough to matter.
One working site can teach more than a parish-wide promise that never leaves paper.
Propose a place
Anyone may propose an eligible site with permission from the person or entity authorized to approve use of the land.
Select finalists
Applications will be reviewed privately, with approximately two strong proposals expected to move forward.
Community vote
The finalists will be shared publicly and the community will vote between them.
Fund it and learn in public
I will make the final selection, explain the choice and provide the first $500 up front after receiving a simple spending plan.
The vote matters, but it is not binding.
The community’s response will be part of the decision. I retain the final choice and will publicly explain why the selected project was chosen.
Learn in public
Show what happens—not just what was promised.
The selected project will document what gets planted, how the money is used, what survives, what dies, what people harvest, what maintenance is required and how the public responds. Opposition, regulatory problems, successes and failures all belong in the record.
Failure is useful information when it is made public.
Identify first. Harvest responsibly. Edible Commons will not encourage eating plants where permission, identification or ecological impact is uncertain. Future hubs may use signs, QR codes, plant pages and the principle DO NOT EAT UNTIL INFORMED.