Atlanta’s urban farms make a stand against food-redlining
In Atlanta, as in many other parts of the nation, access to fresh, healthy food is a problem that disproportionately affects the Black population.
By Madeline Thigpen
The Atlanta Voice
Nov 26, 2021
Excerpt:
In the heart of Atlanta, 61-year-old Wayne Ricketts spends his days rooting up weeds, harvesting the year’s final crops and planting seeds before the winter sets in.
Ricketts tends to two urban farms in the English Avenue neighborhood where everyone calls him ‘Jamaica’ after the island where he was born. Both farms are owned by the Friends of English Avenue, a local non-profit founded in 2009.
On that day in early fall he was at the Elm Street farm prepping the crop beds for the next year.
Residents in the neighborhood, especially those without a car, have a hard time accessing fresh food such as fruits and vegetables because the grocery stores are too far. For groceries, a typical neighborhood resident has to walk 30 minutes or take public transportation to get to the Walmart Supercenter, the nearest grocery center more than a mileaway. Barriers like these have forced some residents in the community to look to Jamaica to bring them whatever he is growing in the garden.
