Growing Food, Equity and Friendship in Palm Beach County

If you have stopped watching documentaries about the agricultural and food industry, I don’t blame you. Me too. Overwhelmed, helpless and hungry (because I stop eating everything for a few days, not knowing what to put in my mouth) is my typical response to a food exposé. But not for Stewart Bosley and his hard-working team of volunteers at the Henrietta Bridge Farm in West Palm Beach, Florida. They are putting an end to one of Palm Beach County’s 27 food deserts by cultivating fresh produce in an unlikely place. As the first project of the Urban Growers Community Farm, the Henrietta Bridge Farm is bridging a gap between racially, divided communities—and inspiring young leaders to get their hands dirty and work harder in school.

The Henrietta Bridge Farm is the first of its kind in the neighborhood of Historic Northwest, close to the communities of Pleasant City and North Tamarind. For ten years the pavement lot, once the home to the low-income housing of the Lincoln Plaza Apartments, stood idle and vacant, as many lots in these neighborhoods do. Stewart Bosley (or Boz as many call him), a New Yorker and retired advertising professional of 30 years, joined arms with the City of West Palm Beach’s sustainability efforts in 2008. When he first moved to West Palm Beach, Bosley thought he would open and manage a jazz club. He never imagined that the summers he spent farming in Ohio as a child would have new meaning for him. In 2009, Bosley was approached by city leaders to help write a community food grant from the USDA. Six years later, Henrietta Bridge Farm sold its first harvest.

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Julie is passionate about telling the story of where business meets good. She is the Founder of B Storytelling, a content development company specifically designed to help popularize the good happening through business. They do this by helping Benefit Corporations and other social enterprises identify, build and leverage their brands. Julie has an MBA in Managing for Sustainability from Marlboro Graduate School. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida with her husband, Thomas.