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Urban farmers work to bring fresh food to southwest Illinois

Eugenia Alexander is planning to build a creative green safe space for the community serving the city of East St. Louis at the intersection of Trendley Avenue and 11th Street.
Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat via AP

Nearly 40% of residents in East St. Louis live below the federal poverty line. Along with the city being a food desert, it also lacks a hospital.

By Deasia Paige
Belleville, Ill.,
News-Democrat
Apr 18, 2021

Excerpt:

During the beginning of the pandemic, as many people were trying to grasp what exactly COVID-19 was, Eugenia Alexander decided she’d start growing produce for her family and the community at her Glen Carbon home. She thought she needed it for survival.

“I wanted to do that because what was happening was a lot of fruit was being recalled, (and) a lot of veggies were being recalled during the pandemic when it first started, so I was just like, you know what, us getting food from these grocery stores isn’t like promised,” Alexander said. “Anything can happen. If it wasn’t a pandemic, to where it could be shut down and what are we going to do?”

That was the start of Alexander’s fight for food justice, a grassroots cause aimed at eliminating barriers to accessing healthy foods. Now, nearly a year later, she’s making final preparations for what will become an urban farm compound in East St. Louis, a food desert, where the community can receive fresh produce and learn more about gardening. She plans to start it in the summer.

But she wouldn’t have been able to make preparations for the farm compound without the small network of Black women urban farmers in the St. Louis and metro-east region who are dedicated to bringing fresh produce to underserved communities.

That camaraderie is especially needed now, as Black communities are still experiencing the disproportionate consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and police brutality that defined the past year.

“I know that there’s a need for it because who’s going to take care of us if we don’t take care of us?” said Alexander, who is 31.

Read the complete article here.