On rooftops and under bridges, community gardens will bloom in South L.A.
With the community in crisis, “one of the real touch points was that there was no food,” Anderson said. “We realized that out of the 18 grocery stores that are in South Los Angeles, 10 of them did not sell good fruits and vegetables.”
By Brennon Dixson
LA Times
July 10, 2023
Excerpt:
The three-year pilot will involve agricultural experts, nonprofits and businesses in supporting urban gardens across South and West Los Angeles.
The goal in the first year is to plant five new urban farms and invest in 10 existing ones, including Good Earth. Then teams will fan out to other food deserts — places like Bryan’s neighborhood with few fresh food options — with the aim of planting 37 farms over three years.
“We still have too many young people who have grown up on Gatorade and Hot Cheetos because they don’t know what fresh, nutritious food looks like,” Bryan said. “Food is medicine. Food is life. Food is longevity. Food is the future.”
At-risk youths, formerly incarcerated persons and senior citizens will be among those hired to construct or work in the gardens, which could be planted everywhere from underpasses to the roofs of churches.
“We want you to one day walk into Whole Foods, and you see your product on the shelf,” said Anderson, who with the Partnership for Growth’s president, Rabbi Joel Simonds, will take the lead in running the program.
Kamlager-Dove hopes people will take pride in controlling the food they eat, which could help them make choices that improve their health and ultimately reduce the costs of conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
Communities of color and working-class neighborhoods end up with meat and produce that aren’t as fresh as what’s available in affluent areas — in part due to the industrialization of farming in breadbaskets like the Central Valley, she said.
