Seeds of Change: Urban Gardens and Community Roots
By Suemedha Sood, WireTap
Posted on June 5, 2008, Printed on January 12, 2009
http://www.wiretapmag.org/rights/43579/
The local food movement is blossoming all around the country. Communities are developing food economies based on self-reliance and sustainable practices as awareness spreads about what goes on behind the scenes of commercial production, and the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of those processes. But one problem remains: Not everyone can afford to care.
Local, organic, sustainably produced food is expensive. For low-income communities, it's prohibitively expensive. The plain and simple truth is that farmers' markets cost more than Wal-Mart or McDonald's. And in some urban areas, where fast food chains and liquor stores outnumber grocery stores, low-income residents don't even have access to healthy food, let alone locally grown, organic produce.
But all that is beginning to change. A number of enterprises across the countries are closing the gap that separates poor communities from sustainable food. They're doing it by growing solutions right inside low-income neighborhoods.
Co-Op Model
In Charlottesville, Virginia, a public housing project called Friendship Court is leading the way. A year ago, it looked like any other Section 8 public housing development -- apartments, a parking lot, and a courtyard. Now there's a farm in the center of the development, growing rows of various crops.
"The farm creates a way to bring the local food movement to a population that hasn't been very involved," says Karen Waters, executive director of the Quality Community Council, the group behind the operation. "Our garden is physically located in a low-income community. QCC is an organization led by low-income folks and we work on creating bottom-up solutions to local problems."
The QCC's Urban Agriculture Project is an inner-city farm run by neighborhood residents who volunteer their time to grow fresh, organic produce for distribution throughout their community. The project has successfully distributed hundreds of baskets of free food to 41 families so far.
The idea is to foster community building, raise nutrition awareness, promote environmental sustainability, create economic opportunities, and improve the overall health of Charlottesville's low-income citizens.
Eight-year-old Tayshaun Fortune lives in the neighborhood. On any given day, he might be planting seeds, watering crops, making compost -- or just eating melons.
"The best part about the farm is you get to eat the crops you work on," he said. "Like, if you volunteer for a week, you get to take home the foods that you worked on." Fortune doesn't realize that he just explained the business model for a cooperative enterprise -- one that he has a hand in owning.
Feeding Self Suficiency
City Slicker Farms in West Oakland, California, is also based on a model of self-reliance. West Oakland is an area characterized by poverty, unemployment, and poor health. Health problems in the area are at least in part attributable to a high level of food insecurity -- the community has just one grocery store, which most residents don't have access to.
That's where City Slicker comes in. In addition to six urban gardens, the organization has a "backyard garden" program in which it helps low-income neighbors grow their own produce. City Slicker mentors teach participants the skills they need to maintain their gardens and to use the produce for cooking.
"Poverty is a problem and Type 2 diabetes is a problem in these communities. So we know that there's a need for healthy food," says Logan Harris, program assistant for City Slicker Farms. "The backyard garden program is saying, not only is there the need, but there's also the resources that already exist in this community."
Harris points out that low-income communities, even in the inner city, already have the basic resources, the motivation, and sometimes even the knowledge to grow their own food. City Slicker just picks up some of the slack by providing seeds, soil, tools, and training.
If enough residents get involved with urban farming, Harris says, City Slicker Farms could eventually be able to meet almost half of the food needs for the whole community. "As our long-term goal, I believe we can provide 40 percent of our food for the community right here if we just take advantage of the land," she said. "It's definitely about self-sufficiency."
Youth Sow Seeds of Change
In Birmingham, Alabama, a different kind of urban farm project has been growing over the last few years. While Jones Valley Farm is also located in a low-income area, its focus is on education. Jones Valley works with the Alabama School of Fine Arts to offer a high school class on sustainable food systems. The group has a farm on the school's campus that serves as both an experiential tool for students and as a source of fresh, healthy produce for the school's cafeteria.
Jones Valley also works with elementary schools across Birmingham to coordinate farm field trips. Those field trips involve lessons in gardening, cooking, and nutrition. The kids help grow crops on the farm, harvest the food, and take that food to the YMCA kitchen next door to cook. All the while, they learn about nutrition and how to eat healthily.
"We are trying to provide sources of education and information for everybody in the community," said Edwin Marty, director of the farm project. "We specifically say that because we want to include everyone regardless of what your income is. We make sure that it's equitable so that everyone can participate. "
Marty says the farm is adjacent to what used to be one of the worst housing projects in all of Birmingham. In the early days of the farm, that project was all Section 8 housing. The development has since been transformed into mixed-income housing. "While our farm was on-site," he said, "twenty-five blocks were torn down and rebuilt. The neighborhood has gone through an entire transformation."
He isn't sure what kind of impact the change has had -- or will have -- on the farm education project. Jones Valley's education programs continue to attract all different kinds of young people. "We don't serve one community. We have some of the richest kids, who do have access to healthy food, and some of the poorest kids who don't have access...There are certainly neighborhoods in Birmingham where people don't have access to fresh healthy affordable food -- and wouldn't know what to do with it even if they did."
Urban farming is catching on in many cities across the country. But programs that directly involve low-income communities are succeeding in bringing local food to areas with the least access to it. Urban farm advocates are showing that one little farm can be a source of food, health, economic stimulation, education, and most importantly, the self-esteem that comes with self-reliance.
For more information on how youth can get involved with urban farming groups, visit Growing Power. To learn more about the local food movement, check out Slow Food USA.
Suemedha Sood is a 2007 fellow in the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The former assistant editor at the Center for American Progress, she is a frequent contributor to WireTap.
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