EAT
Urban Gardens Feeding Families and Growing Communities in D.C. As the air warms and greenery sprouts from trees again, the time for lush gardens is now. Seeds from melons, corn, squash, tomatoes and any other produce are sowed in the hopes of bountiful summer and fall harvests. This scene may sound like it belongs on farmlands in rural America or in the backyard of a suburban home, but it’s happening in our own city. Forgotten lots and overgrown fields are being converted into urban gardens right here in D.C., providing food and community to the District’s residents. Multiple urban garden organizations have emerged since the passage of the D.C. Urban Farming and Food Security Act of 2014, also known as D.C.’s Farm Bill, acting as a spark for residents to put their green thumbs to use, grow food themselves and maybe make a few friends. While fostering community is a goal of these organizations, the main objective is to provide Washingtonians access to fresh produce. “It’s important to know your neighbors and develop rapport with everyone, but the sole purpose is [to create] food security and self-sufficiency,” says Saleemah Shabazz, former program 18 | APRIL 2020
WORDS BY KELSEY COCHRAN
coordinator of Common Good City Farm and current gardener at LeDroit Park Community Garden. Northeast and Southeast D.C. are home to some of the city’s major food deserts, classified by the D.C. Policy Center as areas where the walking distance to a grocery store is more than 0.5 miles, more than 40 percent of households do not have a reliable vehicle available and the average family income is less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level. For residents living in these areas, food insecurity is a part of everyday life. In order to reduce the total number of people living with these circumstances, communities have turned to urban gardening. Without this vegetation, many would not have access to healthy food options, including Shabazz. “I’m low-income and this addresses my need and supplements a lot of my food,” she says. “This is where all of our food comes from: the earth. It promotes health, activities and education, and it’s a natural thing to do. We can’t avoid it.” Shabazz explains that the need for gardening in D.C. is so great that many people are on the waiting list for their own plot Cultivate the City tomatoes. Photo by Niraj Ray.
