Grow-your-own produce programs sprout in America’s food deserts
Food and farm programs that encourage people to grow their own produce or buy it at low prices offer a solution in these often racially and ethnically diverse communities.
By Cheyanne Mumphrey and Anita Snow
Associated Press
Dec 14, 2020
Excerpt:
Bruce Babcock only has to walk across the street from his house in a residential neighborhood to get to the 10-acre patch of farmland where he labors to help feed his community.
As a community garden coordinator, Mr. Babcock works with volunteer growers and food enthusiasts to provide enough freshly grown produce every week for hundreds of low-income Phoenix residents without access to much nutritional food.
The Spaces of Opportunity neighborhood food system is among several initiatives launched in Phoenix in recent years, following other United States communities like Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland, California, where urban gardens aim to improve food options in racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
The efforts have grown increasingly important with hunger across America on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic. For example, more than 5 million people in Arizona filed unemployment claims this year and many worry where their next meal will come from.
The Arizona Department of Economic Security said as of October more than 900,000 people had applied for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
