Southeastern San Diego

On a Friday afternoon at the roadside farm stand of the Urban Garden Program at Second Chance we meet and hear stories from youth resident farmers Daisy Cortes, Elizabeth Vargas, and Luis Ramirez. It’s a struggle to eat healthy in an environment dominated by fast food restaurants and liquor stores. They find that unhealthy food is cheap and easy to pickup. Daisy has multiple family members who suffer from the food related illness, Type 2 Diabetes. The more she works the land, she realizes that choosing healthy food may not be an easy choice, but it is necessary to maintain optimal health.

Southeastern San Diego

At the edge of Chollas Creek we meet up with neighborhood resident, UC San Diego student, and People’s Produce Farmers’ Market volunteer Eric Henson. He tells us how the farmers’ market has become a popular social gathering spot on Saturdays for the older generation in the neighborhood. Eric volunteers at the farmers’ market as part of his university research where he studies community based business models that promote economic independence and a sense of neighborhood ownership by its residents. An initiative of the Project New Village, the farmers’ market celebrates small local businesses and redefines the idea of local agriculture, with produce coming from nearby gardens. In October of 2014, this farmers’ market moved from its original location on Market St. to its new home around the block on 47th St. at Castana St.

Southeastern San Diego

The motivation to reform San Diego’s urban agriculture ordinances started at the vacant lot that has become the Mt. Hope Community Garden. The garden continues to inspire innovative approaches to city farming, hosting talented gardeners seeking to get their garden beds certified organic to sell their produce at a premium and preparing a large production garden to harvest vegetables to be sold at Project New Village’s other initiative, the People’s Produce Farmers’ Market. At the garden we meet Kadumu Moyenda and Rosalind Garcia. Kadumu works to keep the weeds from taking over and tends to the communal garden bed for the Black Storytellers of San Diego. The garden represents more than a place for growing plants, for Kadumu, it’s a place to grow community. Nibbling on the strawberries she’s growing, Rosalind explains that gardening is physical therapy for her recovering back. Relying upon public transit to get around, it’s tough for residents in the neighborhood to go shopping at big box shops outside the neighborhood. She sees the garden and the nearby farmers’ market as positive opportunities in the neighborhood.