With fresh produce, community events and a focus on learning, 15^th Street Farm provides a communal space for St. Petersburg, Florida residents to join in developing healthy, sustainable food practices. In March 2024, 15^th Street Farm officially became a member of the Climate First Bank community, helping further their mission of facilitating learning and community through sustainable, urban agriculture.  

15^th Street Farm was founded by Emmanuel Roux and Bill Bilodeau back in 2010, when Roux was inspired by a neighbor to create a garden to serve the therapeutic needs of those at a local community rehabilitation center. Years later, the farm was revitalized and given the purpose of serving as an urban, community farm to support learning and wellness.

“We've created a context where those who want to learn can learn, we don't try to teach anything to anybody. We facilitate learning. I think there is a difference,” Roux said. "We decided to add a kitchen and event space to show people where their food comes from. We create an opportunity for people to connect with nature and understand the cycles of nature."

The venue offers various events including dinners, tasting tours and herb walks, all of which help support their non-profit cause of providing the less fortunate with free outreach and wellness services. By banking with Climate First Bank, 15^th Street Farm is empowered to advance their mission, knowing that their funding is being deposited responsibly into a bank that aligns with their values.

“I think that you have to put your money where your mouth is. And if the bank has a mission that aligns with ours, or your bank mission aligns with our mission, then that is the better option,” Roux explained. “We're members of the same club, so we want to support people who support the same and similar causes as we do.”

To fund their mission, 15^th Street Farm has a self-sustained business model that involves generating revenue from in-house activity and grant solicitation. Values-aligned banking promotes the betterment of all communities through financially supporting humanistic and environmental causes. For non-profits especially, this model can prove to be highly advantageous as it is stakeholder-focused, as opposed to purely share-holder focused.  

"Climate has an impact on community resilience, because it impacts food supply. All those things are linked together, because in the case of a hurricane, which is one of our main sources of disaster in Florida, if we depend on food that is being shipped from the other side of the world, a hurricane is going to disrupt the flow of the global food system. If we have some capacity for producing food locally, we will be far more resilient. So, it is a change of perspective that is aligned with nature, where in nature, over billions of years, has focused more on resiliency and not on efficiency,” Roux said.

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