Food insecurity linked to gun violence. Urban farms in St. Louis work on a solution
Nearly 70% of St. Louis homicides last year occurred in low-income areas with no access to a grocery store or supermarket for at least half a mile
By Hurubie Meko
Missouri Independent
June 27, 2021
Excerpt:
Straw hat in hand, Tyrean “Heru” Lewis jumped out of his pickup truck along busy Shackelford Road in North St. Louis County and walked into the treeline, where he had something special to show.
On the other side, uniform rows of vegetables — lettuce, radishes and bok choy — sprouted on half an acre. The land is not on a remote country farm, but just 17 miles from the Delmar Loop in the heart of the city. As Lewis, founder of Heru Urban Farming, checks the crop he gets excited about its progress, raising his voice over the sound of traffic.
As he talks, he describes the need he has seen in St. Louis, his hometown, the neighborhoods where many children don’t have enough healthy food to eat, and where the nearest fresh vegetable can be miles away.
He has also seen how gun violence has become a fact of everyday life in these same neighborhoods. As a health teacher, he saw one of his students go to prison for a shooting. As a resident, he hears gunshots daily around his home, and three or four people get killed in his neighborhood every year.
