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Why Mount Airy’s Ashley Gripper is teaching Philly residents how to heal as they garden

Ashley Gripper.

Her food and environmental collective, Land Based Jawns, hopes to plant seeds for community growers and spawn gardens on residential blocks in the city.

By Cassie Owens
Philadelphia Inquirer
Published Feb 22, 2021

Excerpt:

“That’s when I kind of started to think about, ‘OK, what would it mean for me to know how to grow my own food? What does it mean for me to know how to defend myself?” she explained. “What does it mean for me to live cooperatively with family and friends to work, to care for the land, and work the land, to know how to build, to be an educator, to be all of these things in community with other folks?”

Land Based Jawns offers ways to approach these questions. This interdisciplinary series will cover agricultural skills, food justice, nutrition, environmental health, but also turning to the land for mental health. Participants will learn how to build their own raised beds and get food growing, but they’ll also learn self-defense and self-forgiveness. Gripper has grounded the offerings in reconnecting with the land spiritually, in line with Black ancestral traditions.

Students will leave with the tools to start their own gardens. Gripper, who mentioned that her neighbors love to visit her garden for food, but also to take in the aromas, is hoping their work can lead to more community gardens on residential blocks in the city.

The lineup of instructors includes chef Laquanda Dobson, therapist and trauma specialist Tien Sydnor-Campbell, Glover Gardens owner Hajjah Glover, Nana Catherine’s Apothecary owner Desiree Thompson, all of Philadelphia, as well as agriculture scholar-activist and Philly native Shakira Tyler, who is based in Detroit.

Read the complete article here.