Maybin Chisebuka is an urban farmer in Bellevue who had an idea about how to supply his neighbors with low-cost organic produce by teaching them how to grow it themselves. Now that dream is being seeded by nonprofits to become a hybrid garden in the Lake Hills Greenbelt that provides educational gardening and crop sharing, promotes social business practice, offers organic produce to low-income households and STEM-focused curriculum for Bellevue students.

“The model that this hopes to create is the model for how this was formed,” he said.

The vision for this divergent Lake Hills garden formed after Chisebuka connected with Narima Amin, founder of Global Social Business Partners, a nonprofit that aligns with the Professor Muhammad Yunus Social Business model of addressing social issues with a business sense and injecting its profitability back into its mission.

A recently formed nonprofit, GSBP saw an opportunity to promote social business by partnering with Chisebuka to create a community garden where volunteers can learn sustainable organic farm practices and take a share of the yield; a garden that provides produce at the farmers market — a sliding price scale applied to assist low-income customers — and puts any profit back into programs. For GSBP, it’s setting an example for the social business model it promotes through its evolving online educational platform.

“You’re trying to fly an airplane while you’re building it,” said Vandana Slatter, who serves on the GSBP board and the board for partnering nonprofit Farmer Frog. “It’s kind of at the seed stage, you could say.”

“My thinking is, grow food that’s affordable,” Chisebuka said, “organic food that’s affordable.”

Chisebuka and Amin went to the city about a piece of underutilized land in the south portion of the Lake Hills Greenbelt. That land was being leased by Cha Family Farms, which operates a nearby produce stand.

Farmer Frog came in to assume the lease for the 2.75 acres of land, which will break ground as a garden 10 a.m. Saturday. Mayor Claudia Balducci will be the keynote speaker. Farmer Frog — a branch of the Foundation for Sustainable Community — provides hands-on STEM curriculum that extends the growing season to year round, repurposing underutilized sites for urban gardens that benefit communities. Chisebuka is also acting urban farmer for Farmer Frog’s sustainable food production project with the Three Cedars Waldorf School in Bellevue.

“When you teach kids to grow a garden and eat healthy, they will never forget,” Chisebuka said. Farmer Frog plans to implement its STEM-based curriculum in all Bellevue schools, giving students guidance on how to start their own school gardens. The corner of the property will be a children’s garden. The urban farmer is currently working with a group of Sammamish High schoolers. “They are zealous about doing something about farming.”

Much of the surrounding land is wetlands, which Chisebuka said will allow for experimenting with irrigation methods within the garden. In other areas, Chisebuka is considering adaptable plantings.

Chisebuka is growing starter plants in his backyard urban farm, where his idea began.