Summer in Our Urban Garden
A district sitting on the edge of the city, San Francisco life has pushed Bayview Hunters Point aside; a mien of abandonment, industrialization, and dated infrastructure borders the entrance of this neighborhood. The district is damaged by its appearance and history, so much so that Bayview’s separation from the congestion of the city has marred access to the most basic necessities.
The US Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency has classified Bayview-Hunters Point as a food desert, with the highest rate of obesity, and least amount of fresh produce in the entire city, at less than 5%. (SF Standard)
Access to food, let alone healthy food, is inhibited by the line that has been drawn. Fresh, organic products are farther away or more spread out throughout the district compared to other parts of the city. The expense of a car and the hassle of public transportation subdues the control these families have over the types of foods they eat. Malnutrition and obesity rates skyrocket, therefore, because of a normalized greater access to fast foods and non nutritious alternatives. The food landscape is changing although, with plans for larger, community-empowered markets with subsidized price options to fully replace the markets that have failed (SF Standard). But, quantity and accessibility remain in short supply.
Our Oakdale site has become home to a year-round, fully sustainable community garden, mostly upheld by our kids, ages 8-24. This summer, we welcomed volunteers into the space to help the kids maintain their crops. Teams from Habitat for Humanity, Strava, Nazabeauty, and 100 Percent College Prep played a role in planting, cultivating, and harvesting the plants. Pictured below are some of our volunteers in action
Strava: Harvested sunflower seeds and apricots. Batched fresh apricot jam using our kids’s recipe.
Habitat for Humanity: Planted seeds, treated the germinating sprouts, and cleaned the overgrowth.
Nazabeauty: Harvested our surplus of fresh fruits and batched apricot, mango, and strawberry jam.
Our urban garden has flourished over the last couple of months and we do not see it stopping anytime soon. In the garden, our youth and volunteers have grown: pumpkins, strawberries, apricots, lettuce, collard greens, lavender, swiss chard, spinach, arugula, carrots, sweet corn, beans, watermelons, tomatoes, and pomegranates! Most of this cultivation is thanks to our Earn2Learn program, where the youth learn about financial responsibility with earned stipends through garden work. The youth reap the benefits of their hardwork by learning how to cook meals and eating together on-site!
Our Program Coordinator, Kristine, shares some of the meals she has made from these fruits and veggies:
We want to contribute to Bayview’s journey to prosperity. The slow-moving attainment of bare necessities, proper funding, and overall inclusion is going to be hurried by our groundwork. Our gardening program has this important goal: to become a wholly sustainable community garden that provides food to the community and educates the children and their families on health and nutrition. Food deserts are real and we see their impact daily. Our kids often share with us their struggles with attaining food, and the value they hold on the food they receive on-site. This mere fact pushes us to stick to the goal and share this space with more of Bayview. The community garden has the fuel to influence the creation of more. Access to healthy food is a right, and we will continue to grow for the wellness of this little slice of San Francisco.
To learn more about the benefits of gardening for our kids, read “How Getting Our Hands in the Dirt can Rewire Children’s Brains” or visit our program page.
To support this growing effort to feed Bayview children nutritious foods, donate, sponsor an Earn2Learn session, or bring your team out to volunteer with us!
Sources
Ganz, Grace. “How Urban Gardening is Helping to Fight Poverty.” The Borgen Project, https://borgenproject.org/urban-gardening/. Accessed 2022.
Mitchell, Meaghan. “Food Empowerment: A New Kind of Grocery Store May Come to the Bayview.” The San Francisco Standard, 26 October 2021, https://sfstandard.com/community/a-new-kind-of-grocery-store-may-come-to-the-bayview/. Accessed 29 September 2022.