Garden at Liberty Square Housing Development to grow food for the common good MIAMI, April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Keep Miami Beautiful, City of Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz, City of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, as well as local law enforcement representatives, Liberty City residents, and local food agencies will celebrate the inauguration of an edible garden today in the County's Liberty Square Housing Development. The garden's harvest will be shared with local organizations, helping provide Miami's hungry with healthy, fresh-grown fruits and vegetables. The garden, made up of more than 40 plots, will be dedicated in a neighborhood-wide celebration featuring entertainment by Miami Northwestern Senior High School's Performing and Visual Arts Center performance group. The edible garden project was coordinated by The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, along with its partners Keep America Beautiful, Keep Miami Beautiful, the Garden Writers Association, Plant a Row for the Hungry, the National Gardening Association and Franklin Park Conservatory. Earlier this spring, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Plant a Row for the Hungry and Feeding America announced they have joined forces in an effort to provide fresh produce to the hungry this summer and to ask Americans to take the GroGood pledge: Grow for the greater good. To launch the GroGood pledge campaign, ScottsMiracle-Gro is donating 1 million pounds of produce and calling on Americans to help double that donation by pledging to grow and donate an additional 1 million pounds of fresh produce to help feed those at risk for hunger. The GroGood pledge will be administered at the garden dedication ceremony by Mayor Diaz. National and local representatives of the GroGood partnership will provide gardening tips and instruction to residents and local students from the Liberty City Community Center. "The community garden in the Liberty Square Housing Development is a great example of local residents and neighbors working together to create a sustainable green space that will provide them with fresh fruits and vegetables and a sense of community, while benefiting the environment and promoting sustainability," said Mayor Diaz. The Liberty Square garden will be constructed and maintained by Keep Miami Beautiful and the community residents, who will be growing fruits and vegetables for their own families and donating extra produce to three local food agencies: New Birth Baptist Church Lord's Kitchen, 93rd Street Baptist Church's Feeding Ministry and Curley's House. Students from William H. Turner Technical Arts High School Agriscience Academy, will be volunteering their time to help care for the garden. "It's inspiring to see how across the country, gardens have the power to bring out the best in people and their neighborhoods," said Su Lok, director of corporate and community partnerships for ScottsMiracle-Gro. "As more gardeners look to grow their own produce this spring, we hope they share a portion of their harvest with those in need in their community." The Miami edible garden is one of five GroGood gardens ScottsMiracle-Gro and its partners will create across the country this spring to encourage neighborhood participation in edible gardening and the GroGood campaign. In addition to the Miami garden, a community edible garden was established in Los Angeles in March 2009, and gardens are planned for Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Chicago later this year. For more information on GroGood, food gardening and how to locate a local food agency that accepts fresh produce, please visit http://www.grogood.com/. About ScottsMiracle-Gro With nearly $3 billion in worldwide sales and more than 6,000 associates, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, The Scotts Company LLC, is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care, with products for professional horticulture as well. The Company's brands are the most recognized in the industry. In the U.S., the Company's Scotts(R), Miracle-Gro(R) and Ortho(R) brands are market-leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup(R) brand, which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. In the U.S. the Company operates Scotts LawnService(R), the second largest residential lawn care service business. In Europe, the Company's brands include Weedol(R), Pathclear(R), Evergreen(R), Levington(R), Miracle-Gro(R), KB(R), Fertiligene(R) and Substral(R). For additional information, visit us at http://www.scotts.com/. DATASOURCE: The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company CONTACT: Keri Butler, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, +1-937-644-7410 Web Site: http://www.scotts.com/

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