Hey ya'll! Mike Spade here. I'm a permaculture enthusiast and former rooftop farmer. I was born and raised in Queens, NYC but I call Denver home now.

Despite my family struggling with homelessness and bouncing around for years, I was fortunate to attend Stuyvesant High School in Tribeca. There I developed an infatuation for green infrastructure, particularly green roofs, as I saw some of the nation's first LEED rated high rises being developed.

This led to me attending Stony Brook University for Sustainability/ Environmental Design & Policy. After spending two summers conducting independent research into green roofs and their potential uses, I became heavily involved with the rooftop farm atop our university hospital, Stony Brook Heights.

At that farm, I grew my first vegetables and realized how different the taste was compared to what I would usually see in grocery stores. This inspired me to continue working with food for years; living on a farm, leading community based backyard farming efforts and eventually starting my own nonprofit, Plant The Seed Project.

Plant The Seed Project began in 2016 by going to schools and offering garden-based education. Over the years, our programming evolved to include youth farmstands, cooking classes, greenhouse growing and even hydroponics. All of which has been offered as an in-school elective, afterschool program, and summer camp, free of cost to participating schools.

After taking an AWS ReStart Cloud Computing course in 2021, I decided to take as much of the PTSP offerings virtual as possible. I intend to build out this community at Projectplant.xyz. My goal is to help other young people of color eager to work in farming/gardening get started on their journey. In 2022, let's help 25 youth get their "foot in the door" by sponsoring professional development opportunities such as virtual trainings, workshops, and conferences