New north side community garden in collaboration with the Milwaukee Fire Department

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- On Friday, April 15, community leader and founder of the "We Got This" community garden Andre Lee Ellis kicked off another community garden, this time in collaboration with the Milwaukee Fire Department.

The event was supported by many Milwaukee Leaders like Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley and State Senator Lena Taylor.

"Urban gardening, urban agriculture is the way of the future as it relates to jobs as it relates to healing, as it relates to wellness," said Ellis.

It all started when Fire Chief Aaron Lipski approached Ellis with the idea to use a 20,000 square foot plot of empty land right next to the fire house to good use. It took them about a month to plan everything. Their initiative called CAGE, which stands for community agricultural growing experiences.

"This is going to be a way to provide increased health for the neighborhood, increased access, increased connectivity for the fire department for the police department, all the city departments, all the community group," said Chief Lipski.

The project has been a massive community collaboration, students from MSOE will be acting as engineers of the garden. Plans for the garden include a labyrinth, a hoop theater and they're also using hydroponics located inside the fire house.

Ellis said they plan to give out boxes of food to those in the community every week, he shared that his community garden located near 9th and Ring in Milwaukee has fed thousands of families.

The garden is in the process of being built and Ellis assures us the garden will be up and running soon.