- Author: Rose Hayden-Smith
The Verde Partnership Garden is located on the campus of Verde Elementary School in North Richmond. It is a true partnership: both a school and community garden project. It's one of the loveliest gardens I've ever seen.
The project's coordinator is Cassie Scott. A gentle and wise woman, she shared some of the garden's history with me.
The Verde Partnership Garden project serves an extremely low income North Richmond neighborhood that despite its poverty, is rich in diversity and a sense of community. Like many urban areas in America today, North Richmond is poor. Per some statistics, ninety-seven percent of North Richmond families are eligible for public assistance, and the average family income is below $21,000 per year.
More than a decade ago, the area where the market garden now resides was a trash-strewn field behind the school. Richmond has a large population of Laotian refugees. A number of those Laotian refugee mothers - many formerly subsistence farmers from the Mien group - appeared one day and began quietly working. They sought no public permit. They saw a need, and they filled it.
Within three days, these women had claimed unloved and unused public space in the center of their community - the school where their children attended - and turned that space into 25 family garden plots. They hand-tilled each one, and in so doing, transformed a school. One of the school's employees, a child therapy intern with a background in organic gardening, was inspired by their work, and in the adjacent area, cultivated a small children's garden. Several organizations also became involved in the effort, including Catholic Charities. So began the Verde Partnership Garden.
This garden grows healthy children along with healthy food. It serves the school as an outdoor laboratory that brings classroom learning to life. It has distinct areas that encourage nature study and human interaction. Using the garden as its center, teachers and community volunteers teach cooking, nutrition, job readiness, literacy and leadership classes. The garden is a wonderland for children, providing areas of exploration, study, and contemplation.
The original field portion cultivated by a generation of immigrants eager to put down literal (and figurative) roots in the community, has now become a production-oriented garden, a student-run business. It provides food for the community, rolling into the larger effort of the 5% Local Coalition's work to produce and consume 5% of Richmond's food locally. It demonstrates the potential of urban agriculture to produce meaningful quanitities of food for local communities.
The garden may be helping Verde Elementary School in other important ways. The school placed last in statewide academic testing in 1999, the year when the garden programs began. Since then, per some statistics, Verde Elementary School’s test scores have increased at the fastest rate of any school in the state. The school also serves as a place to teach peace and cooperation among diverse groups of students. I visited the garden twice, and each time, there were community volunteers there supporting the work, busy students, and just an overwhelming sense of peace, purpose, and deep community.
There are statistics, and then there are the things that defy quantitative analysis. A shady nook to read a book, plants to touch and smell, an area for pollinators...and a place for school and community to come together.
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."
- Author: Rose Hayden-Smith
I've written a bit about gardening as an important part of civic engagement in American life. Not only in the past, as reflected in Victory Garden programs, but in contemporary American society. Programs such as The Food Project in Boston engage youth through gardening/urban agriculture, providing not only practical skills, but valuable life skills, as well. These kinds of efforts engage youth in creating a food future that is sustainable, healthy and just.
I call this "coming back out onto the front porch."
When I was a small child growing up in a bucolic community outside of Philadelphia, the return of warm weather each spring brought the screen door out from winter storage. The front door remained open nearly all summer, even late into the evening. The front porch was a favorite gathering spot. There, the business of the neighborhood, whether negotiating playdates, exchanging pleasantries or courting (I had older siblings) was transacted.
Each Fourth of July, our front porch became the staging ground for our family's participation in the neighborhood parade. In retrospect, it was a pretty simple thing: bikes, wagons and all the kinds of contraptions kids could create, decorated in red, white and blue. When I was five, I led the procession down our block, wearing a tall Uncle Sam hat. The day seemed to last forever, with lots of good food shared among neighbors (including tomatoes from our garden, salted watermelon, and incredibly sweet berries). Everyone came out onto their front porch to participate in the collective life of our block.
Two weeks ago, our CSA piloted delivery of our midtown Ventura produce boxes to my front porch. It was a great trial run. Two of the families to whom boxes were directed are close friends. The mother of the third family works at my daughter's school, and I know her. One box was to be claimed by a woman who is a friend of a friend. The other boxes were destined for individuals I had not previously met.
We left the front door open, and throughout the course of the late afternoon and into the evening, people dropped by to pick up the boxes. It was nice to say "hello," talk about the great food we had received, and just re-connect. Natalie and I stepped out onto the front porch into "deep community," where we shared with neighbors and new friends our intentional decision to participate in a different kind of consumption pattern.
Contents of our box included farm-fresh eggs, fresh-baked bread, lucious blackberries, fennel, carrots, potatoes, cherries, apricots, lettuce, squash, and the largest onions I've ever seen. Good stuff all. An extra box was left for sharing with neighbors and friends, and was distributed by early this morning. We had extra fennel...did a neighbor want it? No, but she'd call another neighbor and see if they did.
A lot can happen when we step out onto our front porch. Even more can happen when we move into our yards and garden.
Warmer weather provides a great opportunity to start a garden of some sort. Take advantage of the longer days, the slower pace, and reconnect with the soil. Grow something for yourself, something to share with a neighbor, or something to donate to a local food bank.
And after you've planted your garden, come onto your front porch, and see what happens. Community happens around gardens.
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."