Want to see a massive community garden with free produce in Booker T. Washington Park?
Nearly all of the people surveyed — 94% — support the idea of the garden.
By Erin O’hare
Charlottesville Tomorrow
September 15, 2023
Excerpt:
During Monday night’s City Council meeting, Cultivate Charlottesville will ask to turn a quarter acre of land in Booker T. Washington Park, a public park on Preston Avenue, into a 10,000 square foot urban farm. Like the organization’s urban farms before it, this one would provide free fresh produce to families with low incomes, many of them living in subsidized and public housing.
The garden, which would be located on the lower part of the park, near the baseball diamond, has significant community support.
Over the summer, community advocates with Cultivate Charlottesville — all women of color, all leaders in their own communities around the city — hit the pavement and surveyed nearly 350 people who live in the neighborhoods near and surrounding the park: Rose Hill, 10th and Page, parts of Venable, and the Westhaven and Madison Avenue public housing communities.
Nearly all of the people surveyed — 94% — support the idea of the garden.
Most residents do believe that fresh produce is not accessible to all Charlottesville residents. Some spoke from experience. About one-third of the people surveyed said they do struggle to get fresh produce and named transportation and cost as reasons why.
Nearly everyone surveyed supported the idea of distributing free fresh produce to residents of public and affordable housing — though a few said they did not — and that the garden would benefit their community in a variety of ways, not just in food production, but with opportunities for volunteering and community togetherness.
