New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'
Random header image... Refresh for more!

City garden in Battle Creek “shaping the culture of farming”

23-year-old man in Battle Creek using his farm ‘Sunlight Gardens’ to educate inner-city residents and kids about food and nutrition

By: Lauren Edwards
Fox 17
Sept 15, 2020

Excerpt:

“One of the first things I did was invite the community to come here in order to use a lot of that anger and hurt that we were feeling in our hearts and that passion that we were feeling in a good way,” Wilson said during an interview with on Tuesday September 15. “We can sit out here and protest in the streets and that’s needed too. But, at the end of the day, we also got to perform some tangible action that’s going to create something that’s empowering.”

For the 23-year-old, that’s food and nutrition education. Since June, Wilson and others have transformed the land into Sunlight Gardens, a farm where they now grow kale, collard greens, Brussels sprouts,tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables and leafy greens.

“When you eat healthy, you get your body right. You get your mind right,” Wilson said, while wearing a blingy necklace that read farmer. “It’s very foundational. This is where I’m starting my work is with the farming because this is building a foundation that our community can build ourselves up on.”

Wilson said one of his goals is to teach inner-city communities how to grow their own foods so people aren’t always relying on groceries stores to get their foods. He said the coronavirus pandemic, and the food insecurity that rose because of it, reaffirmed for him the significance of communities becoming self-reliant.

Read the complete article here.