CIDADES SEM FOME

― Cities Without Hunger

↑ Cidades Sem Fome ― Courtesy of Cidades Sem Fome

Established in 2004, Cidades Sem Fome is a distinguished Brazilian non-governmental organisation conceived by Hans Dieter Temp, to alleviate hunger and poverty in urban environments through urban food production. Currently employs 522 people full-time and works to develop urban agriculture, business support and educational projects that facilitate cohesion and economic mobility in disadvantaged communities.

Problematic city spaces are converted into productive gardens, a source of income for marginalised people lacking the necessary connections or educational background to prosper in the city. Upon encountering these urban gardens, one finds unexpectedly large and pleasant spaces; obscured by the urban fabric of São Paulo’s peripheral suburbs. The gardens exemplify the transformative potential of repurposing post-industrial and infrastructural remnants into visually appealing and productive green spaces, thereby redefining the experience of urban living and challenging traditional class dynamics in large, often impersonal cities.

CSF gauges success by the number of individuals who can be sustained at three times the minimum wage for each project. Decisions are informed not by conventional efficiency metrics such as labour reduction but rather by the economic productivity of the space over time.

GROWING CYCLE

São Paulo has a year-round productive cycle at an altitude that produces average minimum temperatures of around 12 degrees in mid-July. Cidades Sem Fome requires a diverse range of vegetables to be sold each week, so the harvest is usually mixed but still tuned to the seasons. Cool and dry-weather crops such as kale, root vegetables, eggplant, and squash are planted between May and August. Legumes such as peas or beans add nitrogen to the soil, and brassicas, good for breaking up the compacted ground, are grown on rotation between peak cool and warm season harvests.

SYSTEM DESIGN

The productive gardens are established by clearing uncontested territories inside the city with a minimum of 7500 m² of available space. These are typically infrastructural spaces owned by a city utility or transit route.

A drainage layer to separate contaminated soils is laid beneath a topsoil layer from the countryside. An irrigation system is established, which comprises large rainwater tanks fed by connecting neighbouring rooftops, a bore well and gravity-fed irrigation pipes that follow the planting rows.

An office, processing area and sales hall are established at one end of the site with road access. A small garden tractor is shared between several sites, and a single delivery truck handles the delivery of seedlings and produce to certain restaurants. Electricity is supplied to the bore pump and office, while the garden only works during daylight hours (around 8 hours per day).

The topsoil is conditioned with manure and nitrogen-rich cover crops, and planting begins within 9 months of establishment. Planting and harvesting are done daily to supply the sales hall.