Flowers and Bullets days away from owning their community led space

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Some of you might remember the fire that hit a local nonprofit setting a series of events into motion.

Nonprofit Flowers and Bullets has leased the land for their Midtown Farm from TUSD since 2016, but after the fire in early February, their dream to purchase the property was fast tracked.

The nonprofit is a few days away from signing the papers to own the Julia Keen Elementary School.

Their first steps are going to be the demolition of the building. Even after the fire, the plan is to still hold on to part of the building because of what it means to the community.

“Many of our members within the collective as well as the people from the community went to this school,” said Alfonso Chavez, one of the members of the collective.

The school was shut down in 2004 because it’s under the Davis Monthan Flight Path. One of the founders of Flowers and Bullets, Tito Romero, said it was a pretty big loss.

“Before this school got closed down, this was three meals a day for our kids,” said Romero.

Since 2016 they’ve been trying to not only fill the hole it left, but build something led by the community.

Now it offers many resources to the community like fresh vegetables.

“My grandma was making a dish and my uncle wasn’t home to drive her to the store, but this one was. So we sent my little brother over here and came with my nana on a walk but she found cilantro. She ended up making lentejas,” said Itzel Gamez. She lives across the street from the farm.

Her little brother, Daniel, also has brought their nana fresh eggs from the chickens they have.

The collective holds workshops as well. Every year they have classes on how to make homemade corn tortillas. They use the corn they grow at the farm.

Now that they’re on track to own the property, they can work to bring classes indoors. They plan to keep one area of the building to provide a safe indoor space for the community.

Still, the purchase process has been pricey, so they’re asking for help funding the demolition.

“We need those funds to demolish the building, but also not only that but to make it look nice and make our neighbors feel good about it,” said Silvia Valdillez, another member of Flowers and Bullets.

The nonprofit said the building was condemned before it caught fire, so not only is there the smell of smoke but also the contaminants in the air. There’s neighborhood homes right across the street, so they’re hoping this purchase gets done as soon as possible. Then they can start demolition and remediate the part of the building they plan on keeping.

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