Brick Street Farms: Bringing Farm To Fork In Urban Communities
August 7, 2023
Brick Street Farms wants to enable people to gain access to healthy, nutritional food by placing farms directly in urban communities. It also prioritizes sustainability by limiting water use, energy consumption and agricultural runoff. “We believe now is the time to rethink food access, supply chains and climate impact while contributing to healthier lives,” says CEO and co-founder Shannon O’Malley.
The story begins when O’Malley moves to Siesta Key from Pittsburgh in 2006. When she and her husband, Brad Doyle, bought a house in St. Pete eight years later, she wanted to use her skills as a Master Gardener to start a vegetable garden. “I tip my hat to avid home gardeners in Florida as there are so many challenges – pests, sandy soil and extreme heat, just to name a few,” O’Malley says. Trained as an engineer and working at Duke Energy, she decided to convert their two-car garage into a grow room using hydroponics, a technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil. “I produced an extraordinary amount of produce and in 2016 decided this would be a great way to grow food for an urban market.”
Since they couldn’t afford a warehouse, the couple scraped together funds to buy a shipping container and purchased a piece of land that was a former garbage dump in St. Pete. “It was a dirt lot with six feet of trash and no utilities, and it took us six months to clean it up and make it usable,” O’Malley recalls. Eventually they were able to attract investment partners in order to expand the business.
Today, 20 farm containers are at their hub on 20th Street S; another, at Publix in Lakeland. This equals what 65-70 acres of farmland could produce per month. A retail store at the St. Pete location offers local meat, eggs and milk in addition to the lettuce, herbs and microgreens Brick Street grows. New this year are strawberries that will be ready in about two months in limited quantities. A large part of the business is supplying leafy greens to restaurants across the entire Tampa Bay area, including those along Central Avenue and Beach Drive.
You can shop online through the website, and next-day delivery is available seven days a week within St. Pete.
Brick Street Farms is located at 199 20th St. S in St. Pete
Membership Has Its Privileges
The Farm Store is open to everyone, but It certainly pays to become a member of Brick Street Farms. For $9 a month you will receive 10% off all purchases, unlimited access to chemical-free water, weekly specials, a monthly 25 percent off other local products, a “Double Discount Day,” and an annual Farm Members event. A weekly newsletter lists all the current specials plus upcoming events and recipes.
In addition, membership is considered to be a charitable donation to Brick Street’s Desert Farms Foundation. It uses the money to donate fresh local produce through organizations such as Feeding Tampa Bay, the YMCA, the Boys & Girls Club and other local food pantries.
“Our produce is chemical-free and non-GMO, and no pesticides are used,” O’Malley promises. “We like to say we go from ‘farm to fork’ in less than 36 hours, and you don’t even need to wash it first since nothing touches the leaves.”
Plans for the future might include selling the couple’s patented technology to other growers through franchises, but the goals of sustainability and reaching urban markets will always remain the same.
Brick Street Farms is at 199 20th St. S in St. Pete. It is open Wednesdays through Sundays, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Visit www.BrickStreetFarms.com or call (727) 329-6608 to become a member or to place an online order. Follow on Instagram @brickstreetfarms.
Suzanne Driscoll is a freelance writer from St. Petersburg, Florida. She has written for national publications on issues involving business, healthcare, photography, education and immigration.