We urgently need your help - our community garden is in danger of destruction!

Plantasia Community Garden, created & stewarded by the Tallahassee food justice org Live Oak Radical Ecology, has been growing fresh, local, organic -- free -- produce for the community for over three years. When we first came to the unused lot on the corner of Gaines & Macomb, it was a long-neglected concrete pad full of litter. We cleaned it up and built it from nothing but our own hands, love, care and hope, turning it into the lush and beautiful space it is today entirely through volunteer labor, and funding the materials out of our own pockets and the generous donations of others who love life and community. Plantasia has also been an educational space for children and youth, who we have taught how to garden and grow their own food in afterschool programs and summer classes.

Once a week, we harvest the generous gifts of our plant friends and deliver them to free pantries around town, especially in food insecure neighborhoods, and prepare them in hot meals for free mealshares including Food Not Bombs. With Leon County being the most food insecure in all of Florida (hosting the capital city!), this garden has been a site of hope and promise for a world where everyone who is hungry has access to healthy, tasty food.

We believe that food is a human right. Plantasia is our declaration of this conviction.

But now that hope is in trouble. On January 17th, after a months-long period of confusion about the owners' changing plans for the lot where our garden resides, we were abruptly informed that the owners, city commissioner Jeremy Matlow and his business partner Ryan Smith, intend on evicting Plantasia on February 1st -- to make way for food trucks, on a block where they already own every restaurant (the Wilbury, Iron Daisy, Gaines St. Pies and Warhorse). We had permission to build the garden there on a personal agreement with Jeremy since the latter half of 2020, while the current owners had been leasing it to him and Ryan for years, unused. After purchasing the lot last year, they have decided they want to uproot us and our garden to make room for commercial food trucks, to recoup the cost.
 
When they originally gave us permission to start the garden, we were never given any indication that our presence there would be on such a limited timeline. Gardens are naturally long-term projects designed to grow food indefinitely, and after putting in all the work and love and funds into building the garden, we are being asked to tear it all down. We are grateful for their permission to grow there, since they weren't using the lot for anything. But for those of us who have been coming here several times a week collectively contributing thousands of hours with a purpose to feed people, for all the plants eagerly feeding the Tallahassee community, and for all the hungry people who have been benefiting from Plantasia's existence, this is completely heartbreaking and devastating.
 
We've tried to reach out to Mr. Smith and Matlow to negotiate an arrangement where we can start paying some rent and coexist with the food trucks they want to park. They said no. They are set on destroying Plantasia, and refuse to work with us to find a solution that works for everyone.
 
All we're asking of them is a chance to get on a formal lease so we can pay rent, and offer to rearrange parts of the lot to make way for their food trucks and seating. This is our hope and our goal. Currently they have no interest in finding a way to preserve this beautiful garden, which benefits the whole community, while still being able to cover payments for the lot. But we might have a chance if we join together as a collective voice. 
 
As of today, January 23rd, we have one week to send this message. We need to act NOW.
 
For over three years, our plants and us have looked out for each other. We've nurtured and cared for them, and in return they've nourished us. Now we need your help to protect them. If you are a Tallahassee resident who believes that people should come before profits, that food is a human right, that plants must be protected, and that Tallahassee needs free community gardens more than yet more food trucks, we ask that you sign your name on this petition. 
 
Protecting community is up to you and me. Nobody else will do it for us. Should you choose to sign, your signature also pledges to boycott all of Ryan Smith and Jeremy Matlow's businesses until Plantasia's presence on the lot is secured:
- The Wilbury
- Gaines St. Pies
- Warhorse
- The Iron Daisy
- Any food trucks they move into the lot on Gaines & Macomb, just east of the Iron Daisy.
 
If money is the only language they understand, and they are kicking us out to turn a profit, we need to make it clear that destroying our garden will not be profitable for them.

Thank you. Please spread the word to everyone who cares about community, so together we can #SavePlantasia
 
Follow updates on our Instagram: @liveoakradeco
Donation info: Venmo/Cashapp @liveoakradeco

MORE CONTEXT:
- The raised beds are home to the ashes our beloved friend, a loyal LORE volunteer and community activist, Manuel Tortuguita Paez Teran. In January of 2023, they were killed by Georgia State Troopers, and in March their mother chose to scatter their ashes in the soil, so that their body would become food for the community they had so much care and love for. We cannot allow them to disturb the resting place of our friend to install FOOD TRUCKS that nobody wants. We must protect Tortuguita.
 
- They are claiming they gave us notice of this eviction in October, but this notice was confusing and messy. When Ryan Smith told us about his plans to evict our garden, we were unaware that he was a co-owner, and he only gave us a vague timeline of “when it gets cold”. Afterwards, we received word from an associate of Jeremy Matlow that he was unaware of Ryan’s intentions to evict us. After this, we tried on several occasions to schedule a meeting with Jeremy to get this cleared up so we could have some details on his intentions for the lot, whether he even wanted us gone, and if so, when, so we could base our next steps off of concrete information. We were in correspondence with him, as he expressed a desire to meet with us, but we stopped getting responses while discussing scheduling a time. We were left in limbo about Jeremy's intentions, him being the one with whom we had an agreement to build Plantasia there, and were only given an exact date on January 17th - only two weeks before we are supposed to be out.
 
- They claimed that they would "help us move the garden". Their offer consisted of letting us use their trucks, which is on its face a good-faith gesture, but is functionally meaningless. Gardens cannot be "moved", that's sort of the point -- they are rooted in place. We have been carefully building the soil up for years, and digging it all up would uproot and kill all our plants, and greatly damage the delicate soil ecosystem. Our raised beds would not survive a move, and so we would essentially be starting from scratch, with no feasible place to go in the time span we were given. We understand that they want to at least break even from their purchase, but they can still do that while allowing the garden to remain.
 
- For the sake of transparency, here is the email we sent to them the day after we received the two-week eviction notice, asking them to negotiate with us, which has already been made public on our social media.

They responded no, that our eviction stands on February 1st.

Save the plants! Feed the people! #SAVEPLANTASIA !