Plant It Forward: Creating Access to Healthy Food for Everyone
Reporting by Meesha Halm and Delia Mooney
In hundreds of neighborhoods across the country, nutritious, affordable, and high-quality food and soul-enriching urban greenery are out of reach, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and rural areas. But there are more and more initiatives geared toward creating access to healthy food and environments for everyone. If you’ve got some free time this summer, why not put your vacation time where you heart is with any of the following volunteer experiences that help you connect with your inner farmer and sow the seeds of change.
Greensgrow
Follow Philadelphia’s urban farming leader in cultivating social entrepreneurship, urban agriculture, and community greening through seasonal opportunities with the farmer, nursery staff, or kitchen crew or at their farmstand or for their CSA. greensgrow.org
Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture
Help this Alexandria, Virginia, nonprofit realize its mission to create a more equitable and sustainable local food system in the Washington, DC, area by volunteering for their monthly farm day or their mobile market, which distributes fresh, affordable food to underserved area neighborhoods. arcadiafood.org
The Greening of Detroit
Volunteer with this urban-gardening organization that promotes the growth of healthy urban communities and your efforts will include planting trees and helping develop green spaces in Motor City. greeningofdetroit.com
Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture
Pitch in at this Atlanta, Georgia, organization’s Friday farmers’ market and support their commitment to grow food, community, and people by using natural, GMO-free food production as a catalyst to create jobs and healthier adults and children and build a safe inner city oasis. trulylivingwell.com
Growing Power
Work at one of this organization’s farms to help provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe, and affordable food for people near Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. growingpower.org
Alemany Farm
Join the Friends of Alemany Farm volunteers and support the mission of the 3.5-acre southeast San Francisco farm to educate local residents about how to produce their own food while increasing ecological knowledge and habitat value and sowing the seeds of economic and environmental justice. alemanyfarm.org
Photography (carrots) The Greening of Detroit
