Feeding—and healing—the hood

In the U.S., a movement of Black farmers is trying to reclaim their legacy as agrarians. Only 1.7 percent of farms were run by Black farmers according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Black farmers are forming collectives, creating land trusts, creating conferences.

Food bartering helps families during times of food insecurity, which is often exacerbated by crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Families with lower incomes have bartered for food for a long time but the pandemic has brought diversity to the families exchanging food with friends and neighbors. Food bartering is part of the cultural fabric of different groups, such as the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which hosts workshops on cultivating gardens. Food bartering is an inclusive and community-building practice but when bartering is the only way to get food, the communal reliance can be an emotional drain.

The Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh, the largest refugee camp in the world, is overcrowded and increasingly isolated. A program by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Bangladeshi NGO BRAC offers refugees equipment, advice, fertilizer, and seeds to make their own garden. These gardens have become hugely popular, taking up what little space there is between tents, but also offer refugees a source of peace and a food source to supplement their meals. Compost for these gardens are prepared outside of the camp by Bangladeshi women, which helps improve the relationship between the two groups.

Eliminating food deserts is a community effort. Thanks to work of members, volunteers, and other partners of the East New York Farmers’ Market (ENYF), the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, formerly troubled by a lack of nutritious food, now benefits from semi-weekly produce markets. ENYF also serves as a positive community service for youth and young adults.

New grassroots efforts often struggle to get off the ground due to lack of funding. In Baltimore, a group called CLLCTIVLY aims to fix this problem for black-led non-profit organizations by offering a $1,000 prize every month for a year through its Black Futures Micro-Grant program. CLLCTIVLY has also launched an asset map to connect these smaller efforts to each other.

For Syrian refugees staying in camps in Northern Iraq, gardening and greenery can be a way to stay connected to home while also providing a sense of purpose. The U.K. based nonprofit The Lemon Tree Trust works to help refugees start their own gardens - and eventually sell the produce - by sponsoring a home garden competition and providing toolkits and resources for individuals who'd like to get involved.

Los Angeles-based nonprofit Food Forward was born out of the observation that many farmers are growing more fruit than they can sell at market. To cut down on food waste and get these viable fruits into the hands of people that are food insecure, Food Forward operates as the "transfer point between donors and receiving agencies," while also coordinating volunteers to forage the local farms and farmers markets.

A Kenyan government initiative is helping a growing community of residents to tackle food insecurity in one of the largest slum areas in Africa, championing an unusual form of urban farming: sack gardens.

The Azure Bouré's Traditional Food and Medicine Program provides culturally relevant medicines to Suquamish tribal members and builds community trust while teaching future generations to adapt ancestral knowledge in real-time. As they respond to climate change, the Program has adapted traditional plant harvesting through flexible curriculum adjustments, strategic land partnerships, and transparent education about shifting growing cycles.

The Green City Force run by the New York City Housing Authority turns open urban spaces into gardens tended by young adults in the program. The force is meant to prepare members for careers in sustainable industries afterward. The members also educate locals, trade vegetables grown in the gardens for compost, and train in ecoliteracy.