Every few days, in one of Havana’s poorest neighborhoods, a unique start-up ships small containers of sprouting vegetable seedlings to upscale restaurants in other parts of the city, while neighbors struggle to feed their families amid the worst economic crisis in decades.

Yet architect Oliesky Fabre, the founder of Enparalelo (Parallel Roads), pointed proudly the other day to a 2022 UN World Food Programme award. It was one of 10 projects, out of 200 initiatives, deemed to have the most innovative solutions to combat hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We are a business, but also the motor for a local development project,” Fabre explained, as he worked inside one of two refurbished shipping containers on a vacant lot in the La Timba barrio.

The business started out on Fabre’s balcony as the COVID-19 pandemic raged and traditional Cuban agriculture began a more than 50% decline through last year, according to the Communist-run government.

Enparalelo now works out of the containers and is building a larger production facility nearby on land donated by the local government.

“Microgreens are high in nutrition, relatively inexpensive and easy to grow,” Fabre said.