July 14, 2021
Quianah Upton Grinds to Fight Food Injustice and Open a Black-Owned Greenhouse and Eatery
Quianah Upton — who is an “artist, event producer and social justice advocate” — wants to make opening a Black-owned greenhouse and eatery a reality.
Upton seeks to build “a lush dining café inside a greenhouse” called Nourish Botanica, per Atlanta Intown. Her manner of fighting food injustice is by crafting a plan to provide patrons with access to “Caribbean and Southern plant-based foods and beverages created from blends of flowers and herbs grown on site,” according to the article.
“The reason I went the crowdfunding route is I really didn’t have any other choice,” Upton told Atlanta Intown. “I’m just like the standard black entrepreneur. … I don’t have access to loans and I didn’t have tons of money that I could just invest in taking this risk. I don’t have access to networks where I could get funding or investors or anything like that, so I just sort of reached out to my community.”
Upton’s GoFundMe campaign provided more insight about the fundraiser’s view that she believes that “food is medicine.”
“Nourish Botanica will also operate as a nursery, selling a variety of houseplants, flowers and herbs, as well as offering gardening education and services through our farm partners. At our Botanica Bar, we will provide health and wellness through blends of flowers and herbs grown in our greenhouse in teas, juices and mocktails with creative mixology,” Upton also said on her GoFundMe page.
The social entrepreneur stated that the greenhouse and garden event space would also serve as a rental space for “local chef pop-ups, intimate like-minded events, dinners, engagement parties, art shows” and weddings.
Buying land, hiring labor for an architect and a contractor to build a greenhouse, building materials for infrastructure of a greenhouse and eatery, purchasing commercial equipment for a kitchen facility, purchasing flowers, herbs, trees, plants and seeds from local farmers, securing HVAC and plumbing, building and purchasing furniture and securing fixtures and equipment for the space and design are among expenses that GoFundMe donations will be used to cover.
Click here to learn more about the fundraising campaign and project.