Another this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things story has surfaced in Tampa, where a nonprofit urban garden is saying that it was been robbed of 400 pounds of tilapia and vandalized last week.The nonprofit Tampa Bay Harvest’s Sustainable Living Project is situated near Lowry Park Zoo between the Seminole Heights and Sulphur Springs neighborhoods.
They have started a GoFundMe page to raise the $5,000 needed to restore the system and enhance security at the facility.
The large garden serves as a learning center on sustainable gardening practices, such as the aquaponics project, of which the tilapia were part. What's produced there gets donated to soup kitchens.
The fish live in the water on which vegetables grow, and their nutrient-heavy waste feeds the plants. Now that system is destroyed. The tilapia had been raised by the nonprofit for 16 months and were about to be donated to programs that feed the poor and homeless.
Which is really what's infuriating.
"Whoever stole them could have just come in and we could have just given it to them if they were in need," the group wrote on its GoFundMe page.
The facility grows carrots, strawberries, watermelons, pineapples and peanuts, among other produce, and the tilapia were integral to their operations and goal to teach local charities to grow their own crops.
"What we try to do here is teach and spread the knowledge about growing food in a sustainable manner [that] has resulted in organizations that previously received food from Tampa Bay Harvest’s garden now growing their own," the group wrote. "The Salvation Army no longer needs our food because we built four raised beds and we taught them growing techniques and now they’re a small version of here."