Kickstarter

UPDATE!

Doubling our fundraising goal in 24 hours was a clear indication that we obviously underestimated the number of people who want to be involved in our project and want to contribute to a greener, more sustainable world. We are still accepting donations. You still have until April 6th, 2012 to donate. Any additional funds raised until the deadline will go towards:

Expanding the Surface Area of the Garden: Right now, we have enough money to build a small garden on the front of the truck. Which, is a.w.e.s.o.m.e. If we raise an additional $2,600, we could expand the surface area of the garden so that it covers over 3/4 of the rooftop! 

Purchasing Other Materials: We can still use a hand to purchase other materials such as lightweight subsoil, compost, plants and other gardening supplies. 

Again, thank you to all of you who donated, who spread the word and who provided your lovely words of encouragement. We are so grateful for each and every one of you. We are so excited to start the project and will communicate our progress each step of the way. So stay tuned!

Who we are:

Lulu's Local Eatery is a food truck in St. Louis, MO dedicated to supporting local farmers and promoting sustainability at large. The food is an eclectic mix of fresh-focused eats served with all-natural, local and organic ingredients wherever possible. 

Why a rooftop garden on top of a food truck?

We are going to install a rooftop garden on top of the food truck and grow some of our vegetables right there - how much more local can you get?! We believe the rooftop garden would serve as an inspiration to people in our community to grow their own food. If you can grow food on top of a truck, imagine the possibilities!!

Who is going to design it and how does it work?

We are working with a designer, Marco Antonio Castro of Bus Roots (www.busroots.org) who designed a garden on top of a NYC bus (see our profile picture). He proposes that, if there were gardens on all NYC buses, Manhattan would have approximately 40+ ACRES of green space that was previously unused. WOW! His design uses green roofing technology to make sure that the plants don't fall off, the soil doesn't erode onto the truck, etc. 

Why a kickstarter campaign?

Lulu's is going to build a rooftop garden on top of their food truck in April prior to their opening mid-month. Here's the thing: as we started to work through the materials we would need, we were faced with some tough decisions. If we use more lightweight materials, the more sustainable the garden will be (i.e. the less heavy the garden will be which means the less fuel we'll need and the less maintenance it will require). 

Bottom line: the more lightweight the materials, the more expensive the garden becomes. 

That's where you can help. As a small business, we're operating on a shoestring budget and purchasing the more lightweight materials is simply outside of our scope. As we talked with people about our dilemma, the consensus was: launch a Kickstarter campaign! We thought, how better to fulfill our mission, then to reach out to our friends and family to have them be a part of making our garden (and truck) more sustainable? The beauty of kickstarter is, not only are you helping a creative project come to fruition, but you get to be a part of the process and have ownership in the final product. $5 or $10 can make a real, lasting impact on your community and on our planet as a whole!

Why donate?

This project is already gaining media attention. Lots of people will see it. By donating to our project, you are helping to inspire people to grow their own food and empower many more to come up with innovative solutions to heal our communities and our planet. 

If that's not enough incentive, we're offering some pretty awesome rewards for donating! :)

Thank you

Thank you for your support! We are so grateful to have so many amazing people in our lives who support us and believe in our mission.