CITY LOTS PRODUCE
Newark has been termed a “food desert,” a city of 280,000 people with only two major supermarkets. Half the city’s residents do not own cars, so they have to shop in small neighborhood grocery stores that stock few fresh fruits and vegetables. There is a high rate of obesity, yet many people have incomes so low they worry about having enough to eat.
To address these issues, Greater Newark Conservancy is establishing urban farms on 21 oddly shaped, undevelopable lots made available by the City of Newark. Over the past six months, Conservancy Clean and Green teams have transformed five of the abandoned lots, dividing them into garden plots that have been adopted, rent-free, by Newark residents. The remaining 16 lots are being prepared for gardens.
Plot-it-Fresh gardeners need not live near their plots but must sign a contract promising to tend their areas regularly. The Conservancy guides new gardeners by providing workshops on raising vegetables and provides food-preparation tips to maximize nutritional benefits.
“Residents have been very enthusiastic,” says Naimah Evans, a 31-year-old ex-offender who has transformed her own life through the Conservancy’s Clean & Green prisoner re-entry program. Now a full-time Conservancy staff member in the urban farming program, Naimah looks back on hot summer days spent cutting down trees, pulling weeds and spreading wood chips as she worked to create urban farms under the supervision of Community Greening Coordinator Lee Stronstorff.
“The Conservancy staff dropped us off each day with our tools,” recalls Hector Castro, 35, another Clean & Green grad hired by the Conservancy. “At one of the gardens, we used bricks to make a path for wheelchair access. We had children from the neighborhood helping us with the lot on North 15th Avenue.” Since joining the staff, Hector has enrolled in a college business course.
Clean & Green alumnus Leon Jenkins worked through last winter to make sure the first gardens were ready for spring. “We shoveled show and hauled trash on good days,” he recalls, “and when the weather was bad, I built raised beds and frames inside.”
Also a full-time Conservancy employee, Leon, 39, was assigned to deliver water to the gardens every day during the hot, dry weeks. He found some experts among the community gardeners, “mainly those who grew up in the South,” while others were learning along with him. “Doing this work feels good,” Leon says. And the urban farms are providing good healthy food and wonderful gardening opportunities for the people of Newark.
For more information on Greater Newark Conservancy visit www.citybloom.org or call 973.642.4646.
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