DRAFT income BIPOC communities where need is dire and
In Philadelphia, 78 percent of Black residents and 80 percent of Spanish-speaking residents live in high poverty areas. Data on active garden and farm locations show that they are located predominantly in these high-poverty, BIPOC neighborhoods, especially in North, West, and South Philadelphia. About two out of every three active gardens and farms in the city are in Racially Concentrated Areas of Poverty (RCAPs), where over 50 percent of residents are BIPOC and over 20 percent live below the poverty line. This affirms the role of urban agriculture in providing essential food, especially in low
food stores do not provide enough access to fresh produce. According to the Department of Public Health’s Neighborhood Food Retail Study, in roughly half of the city’s Census Block Groups have fewer than one in every 10 food stores sell fresh fruits and vegetables.9 While gardens and farms could play a role in providing produce in those low-produce areas, only 20 percent of low-produce Block Groups have at least one active garden or farm.
FIGURE 6. Map
of Access to Stores Selling Fresh Produce, with Current Garden Locations
Block Groups have a very ~50% oflow proportion of food stores that sell fresh produce (fewer than 1 in 10)
GROWING FROM THE ROOT: PHILADELPHIA’S URBAN AGRICULTURE PLAN
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