ShareThisRecently I was in Baltimore to install another community garden for Fiskars, under its Project Orange Thumb initiative. The company selects sites in neighborhoods where poverty rates are high and urban blight is all too apparent, believing that community gardens can be the catalyst and inspiration for great change. The neighborhood chosen for this particular installation was just such a place.
But this story is not about that garden. It's about a grass-roots effort that's taking place on that same block. I wouldn't have known anything about it, except for four or five vegetable-laden tables, lined up on a nearby street corner, which quickly caught my eye and drew me in. It was a strange sight; so many fresh vegetables, obviously picked only hours earlier, stacked tall and wide, just waiting for people to buy them.
Under the leadership of Angela Smith, the project is a joint partnership between the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) and the Knox Presbyterian Church. CFL undertook a food assessment of Baltimore and identified certain areas where people didn't have easy access to fresh, healthy foods. Typically these neighborhoods have suffered from urban blight for decades. Poverty rates are high, and the poor are at greater risk for developing diet-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. So CFL found a solution to this problem by bringing healthy food to them.
Knox Presbyterian was the perfect partner. For years, Knox has hosted a soup kitchen, serving around 120 people each week. As the church looked to extend its reach into the community even further, it saw the opportunity to bring fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to neighbors as a natural extension.
Enter One Straw Farm. One Straw Farm operates a community-supported-agriculture (CSA) program. Just like any other CSA, individuals buy shares at the beginning of the season and receive fresh produce each week until the end of the season. It's a win-win, because the farmer reduces his financial risk and the consumer knows exactly where and how the food was grown.
Here's where it gets cool. Since many residents can't afford the large upfront cost of becoming a shareholder, the partnership purchases 10 CSA shares with grant money. And for every 10 shares purchased, One Straw Farm throws one in for free. This venture's eye-catching produce was what caught my attention.
The items are priced separately and based on what one would pay in a nearby grocery store for non-organic produce. All proceeds are put into a fund that will be used to purchase shares in upcoming years. The plan is for the program to be self-sufficient within three to four years. The produce that isn't purchased is either donated to Knox's soup kitchen or to local residents in need. They even give samples and recipes to take home for those unfamiliar with eating seasonally or cooking certain types of fruits and veggies.
It is people and organizations coming together in such a creative and sustainable way that will have far-reaching benefits in the future. Hopefully, this model will be replicated in cities and towns across the country.
This co-op has only been operating in Baltimore for two months, but it's really starting to pick up. Congregation members, from seniors to children, along with participants from CLF, come every week to help man the table and spread the gospel of garden-fresh produce.
(Joe Lamp'l, host of "GardenSMART" on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. For more information visit www.joegardener.com. For more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
THE GARDENER WITHIN
