11 minute read
Peachtree Farm and Why It Is Important
Construction begins this summer for the integrative and inclusive Peachtree Farm. Peachtree Farm will serve as a community initiative to provide high ranking jobs for adults with disabilities and service opportunities for the Peachtree community.
Founder Mike Twiner has been involved with the Georgia special needs community for nearly 20 years as his daughter, Qwen Twiner, has special needs. Twiner has worked with several special needs charities throughout Georgia, and even chaired the special Olympics of Georgia.
Twiner reflected on the concerns of all parents with disabled children: “What is our child going to do when they graduate from high school that’s productive and meaningful? Where are they going to live that’s safe [where I can feel comfortable with leaving them]? Who’s going to take care of them when I’m gone?”
In order to alleviate these concerns and build hope and better connections in the Peachtree community, Twiner created Peachtree Farm as “a result of that need [and] a community effort to solve these three problems.” These valid concerns are what inspired Peachtree Farm to provide high ranking jobs for adults with disabilities, and on-site homes with caregivers who will ensure the health of the disabled employees.
The farm will also be a beacon of unity and provide community volunteers with the opportunity to serve and interact with adults who have disabilities.
With hopes for improved interactions between abled and disabled individuals, Twiner believes “the more you interact with people with special needs, the more comfortable you’ll both feel around each other.”
Looking back at the grand scope of mistreatment and oppression of adults with disabilities over the past 60 years, there has been a plethora of initiatives to ensure the abled can gain a better understanding of disabled people (and vice-versa). For instance, family shows such as Sesame Street have been long known for educating all people on the importance of comprehensive discussions revolving around disabilities. Specifically, their See Amazing in All Children initiative introduced an autistic four-year old girl, Julia.
Efforts such as this capture the genuine essence of how important it is to communicate and form relationships with people in the disabled community. To ensure these healthy connections are made, “The Peachtree Farm’s operations will be led by adults with disabilities,” Twiner said.
For the community, Peachtree Farm will also employ adults without disabilities and local high school students “so that they can learn how to work,” he continued, “and [we’ll] l teach them what a job is.”
Construction for the farm begins this summer, and Twiner affirmed that, “all the funds necessary are in the bank to complete the Phase One greenhouse, so we’re going to start construction with all necessary assets in place.”
However, Peachtree Farm will still need help from local sponsors as they continue their development.
The first phase of Peachtree Farm will be a 120-foot greenhouse, along with bee apiaries that will pollinate produce and vegetation around the farm. Their
apiaries will also serve as a public art project, where local artists will be able to come and paint bee boxes that will be displayed at the apiary. They also project to have a commercial kitchen, office building, warehouse, 15 residential houses for the adults with disabilities, a barn, a service dog training area and a farm animal area.
Sustainable Crops
As a viable part of their greenhouses, Peachtree Farm aims to produce approximately 28,000 lbs.
Opposite page, rendering of the Peachtree Farm development Mary and Mike Twiner, Founders This page top down, Claude Schneider and Quinn Twiner, Board Member and employee Kevin Mackey, employee Recent weekend farm stand, left to right, Joey Newton, Mike Twiner, Avery Copenhaver, Quinn Twiner, Mary Twiner, Kevin Mackey
/ 14 tons of tomatoes per greenhouse, year-round, along with several other plants that will be sold at their on-site farm stand.
Peachtree Farm’s primary means of producing their tomatoes will be through hydroponic farming and automatic fertilization. Hydroponic farming is truly what will allow the Peachtree Farm to stand apart from their competitors, as their greenhouses allow them to avoid artificial ripening during the winter months.
Twiner’s son, Joe Twiner remarked, “hydroponic tomatoes are on the vine until they’re picked and sold, and so they taste like fresh summer tomatoes in January.”
The greenhouse will hold 72 grow stations, and the grow station is a “bato bucket,” a large plastic tub full of percolate, a lightweight grow material that the plant roots will grow in. With the help of timed lights, the tomatoes will be automatically fertilized, and water will be applied to them on a regular basis.
Following the fertilization process, Twiner highlighted that “it’s [all] a closed system so we’re not wasting any water, [and] we’re not wasting any nutrients.”
“Everything on this farm will be for sale,” he added.
In addition, the rest of the greenhouse and outdoor space will be used for community gardens and outdoor crops, such as shrubbery, oak trees, Japanese maples and other commercially viable crops.
With issues such as climate change on the rise, Peachtree Farm recognizes that the U.S. agricultural emissions totaled up to roughly 629 million metric tons in recent years. To reduce their carbon footprint, Peachtree Farm is exclusive to local restaurants and aims to have only local partners once their greenhouses are up and running.
“We are the ultimate greenhouse. We produce food with a very low carbon footprint,” Twiner said. “There’s no electricity being used, other than for the lights, but all of our products are being recycled [and] put back into the environment.”
The Future of Peachtree Farm
During Phase One of development, they will build small 3- and 4-bedroom cottages with enough room for two adults with disabilities and a caretaker, or three adults with disabilities who may need minor support. “We hope to create 10 jobs for adults with disabilities, and a lot more after that. Our staff will mostly be one full-time employee and community volunteers that will aid with all other aspects of the farm,” Twiner added.
He finally expressed the need for community involvement. “Without the [help of] the community, this project won’t be successful, and so we’ll need volunteers to help with all aspects of the farm.”
In the next two years, Peachtree Farm is projected to be self-sustaining and contain completed greenhouses, residential homes for employees and an office building, along with a full-time staff. It will accomplish all of this while upholding its role as an establishment built for integration and inclusion for all.
Go to peachtreefarm.org to learn more about the farm and how you can help it achieve its mission. ■
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Electrifying Peachtree Corners: City Offering Community Incentives on EV Chargers
This year is turning into a pivotal one for electric vehicle (EV) sales as numbers of EVs sold have increased substantially over previous years. For Peachtree Corners residents and business owners in the market for an EV, it also means researching and deciding among the myriad of choices of EV chargers, which can be overwhelming.
To assist the community, a dedicated website, Electrifying Peachtree Corners, has been developed to provide a guide through charging solution questionnaires and resources to help understand and evaluate EV charging choices. The new website, ptccharging.com, offers special charging solutions that are only available to its residents and businesses.
Many options
For the average first-time EV owners, plugging in to a charger seems simple enough, but not all chargers are equal. Some chargers can be installed simply by plugging into a standard wall outlet, while others require a custom installation.
Then there is the question of speed. How quickly will you need to charge your vehicle — overnight, within a few hours or within minutes?
For business owners wading into the EV world, there are even more questions. Will the EV charging stations be used to charge an EV fleet for business use, to support employees and to attract customers? Choosing the best EV charging station for business use can be a formidable undertaking.
To understand and analyze the maze of information on EV charging stations, Peachtree Corners city leaders worked with Hubject, an international company promoting emission-free mobility, to issue a request for proposals from electric vehicle supply equipment manufacturers. Through this proposal, the city received responses from 23 electric vehicle charging companies from across the globe.
Get answers at the website
The city and Hubject are now able to offer useful information and discounted pricing on charging infrastructure via a dedicated website for its residents and businesses. “Electric vehicle charging is an important aspect of EV ownership,” said Assistant City Manager Brandon Branham. “The website provides a guide with step-by-step guides that cover all key issues for both residential and business use.”
Recognizing the continued popularity of electric vehicles, last fall the city introduced its 16-vehicle charging plaza located at the Town Center. The plaza is the second largest in the state with 12 Tesla V3 Superchargers, two 350 kW chargers and two 15 kW chargers.
“We are pleased to be able to offer this information to our residents and businesses,” said Mayor Mike Mason. “We continue to strive to live up to the city’s tagline, ‘Innovative and Remarkable’ by offering beneficial technology solutions and opportunities.”
Local residents and businesses can learn more at ptccharging.com. ■
Soliant Continues Expansion in Peachtree Corners
2021 Summer Internship Program (Facebook Page)
Soliant, a leading provider of specialized healthcare and education staffing services to hospitals and schools around the nation, is growing in Peachtree Corners. Soliant recently expanded their Peachtree Corners headquarters at 5550 Peachtree Parkway by 25,000 square feet, bringing the total to 83,000 square feet.
In 2020 ,the company announced the relocation of its national headquarters to a 58,000-square-foot space in Peachtree Corners. The majority of new job opportunities now open to applicants will be focused on education and healthcare recruiting. Soliant will employ more than 600 people once this expansion is complete. ■
Local Production Studio Innovates to Stay Afloat and Keep Creating
MMP Production using Unreal Engine (Facebook Page)
What started as a business offering music lessons and instrument rental has grown by leaps and bounds, now supplying major concert
Music Matters Productions (MMP) in Peachtree Corners pivoted from pandemic hardship into a new division. When live events sank in the wake of the spreading coronavirus, MMP took a different tack. The company, which had just signed a lease for 40,000 square feet of space on Green Point Parkway, began creating “live” environments within its studio with the help the Unreal Engine.
With no events to produce in 2020, the company experimented with the Unreal Engine software, typically used in video game environments, to create XR scenes and environments to help clients create innovative content. The company began using it to produce films, music videos and commercials for clients who couldn’t perform for live audiences, all within its XR studio.
MMP sold a six-episode show to Apple Music and created a piece for Jimmy Fallon. Thus, its newest division was launched. Now, the company’s founder and visual designer, Aaron Soriero, is planning to expand in Salt Lake City and Nashville.
“It has been fun to expand our horizons and services, while staying fully in our lane of capabilities,” said Soriero. “Having the ability to shift the business into content creation and to have the opportunity to own and produce our own content is invaluable.”
In addition to mobile staging and virtual event production, the company organizes drive-in events, provides live event production, creates music videos and customizes, manages, and designs projects. In short, MMP is a one-stop production shop.
MMP has created productions for the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Shaky Knees Music Festival, Sweetwater 420 Fest, the Fox Theatre, State Farm Arena and the Tabernacle, among other venues. For more information, visit musicmattersproductions.com. ■
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