Small Can Scale: Why Big Green Is All In on West Palm Beach
Before we dive into this remarkable story, a quick reminder: Big Green is evolving.
What began as a mission to build school, home, and community gardens has grown into something much bigger. Today, we’re focused on finding, funding, and scaling community-led nonprofits that are reimagining local food systems — because we fundamentally believe that small can scale.
E-RoadMap, a Palm Beach County-based nonprofit improving community food access and education, is a perfect example. They are deeply rooted within their neighborhood and deeply committed to food equity. That’s exactly the kind of work we’re here to support.
At a recent Spring Festival in Riviera Beach, where our Big Green Bus met nearly 300 local residents, we got to experience firsthand the heart of E-RoadMap’s impact. That day helped crystallize the “why” behind their work, and strengthened our commitment to helping scale their efforts to reach even more residents in the months ahead.
According to United Way, in 2024, it was estimated that more than 173,000 residents are experiencing food insecurity, with nearly 30% of those struggling are children. Additionally, roughly 7,000 people are living in poverty, or 18% of the total population. This challenge is further exacerbated by a local shortage of fresh food available through food banks and hunger relief providers. The simple truth: nutrient-dense food is not available to those in need. This is resulting in disproportionate impacts on health, including high rates of preventable disease.
In partnership with local visionary Veleké Brown, founder and CEO of E-RoadMap, we’re igniting a multi-phase initiative that begins in Riviera Beach and ultimately expands into West Palm Beach to increase access to fresh, healthy food. The movement is already underway: we’ve launched an 8-bed garden at JFK Middle School and distributed 250 home garden kits to residents during the April 12 Spring Festival. Next up, we’re rolling out 750 kits to local seniors and planting five more community gardens across the city. Phase two will support 100–150 residents with two raised-bed gardens each, along with educational resources and participation in a program designed to shape future community engagement.
Throughout the initiative, Big Green will provide resources to participants and help to support the sustainability of our local facilitator, E-RoadMap, through program and design consultation, fundraising efforts, and access to Big Green DAO resources.
Our goal for this project is to permanently increase community access to fresh food, by the end of this project, we anticipate impacting thousands of people in Palm Beach County. By strengthening and scaling the work that Veleké has already done, we anticipate increases in daily fruit and vegetable consumption, the number of people with continuous access to fresh food, local access points for fresh food, and participation in nutrition and garden education programs.
Stay tuned for more Palm Beach County updates!
