‘It’s our heritage’: How Sacramento residents fight food insecurity through urban farming
“It was an empty lot for 30 years … and now it’s a food hub,” Hoang said of the garden.
By Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks
The Sacramento Bee
July 22, 2021
Excerpt:
Though urban farms and home gardens aren’t necessarily a panacea for the systemic issue of food insecurity affecting tens of thousands of Sacramentans, research has found that they can make meaningful impacts on the health and wellbeing of residents at the neighborhood level.
Families reported having closer bonds through gardening, and eating vegetables more frequently, one study found. Another pilot study found that home gardeners saved on average $92 per month, and community gardeners saved $84 per month. Community gardens can also improve neighborhood property values, increase neighborhood well-being, and be a relatively inexpensive way to develop unused and blighted lots.
It’s a model that’s taking shape in the form of a new grassroots community effort called Tanama Garden, a new urban farm on 12th Avenue just off Stockton Boulevard that has taken shape on a formerly vacant lot just in the last three months.
Named after the word for “butterfly” in Taíno, community members have planted everything from zucchinis and corn to avocado and nut trees. The urban garden is being designed by Oak Park resident Alex Hoang, who runs the nearby chicken composting station, the Oak Park Eggery.
It’s created a seamless and sustainable system where residents and businesses can bring food scraps for chicken feed or composting at the Eggery, and then the nutrient rich soil can be brought over to Tanama Garden for use.
