West End Community Gardens sprang up on a sadly neglected corner lot in Birmingham in 2008. The USDA has determined that there is a scarcity of healthy food in Alabama, thus it is not surprising that the WE Gardens are located in the middle of a food desert that consists of seven fast-food restaurants and only one grocery store. Since its inception, the garden has been as focused on community building as it has on teaching residents about the benefits of a healthy diet. The small half-acre lot provides food for those who have rented plots as well as fresh vegetables grown in a common garden that are sold to local residents. There are youth gardens, cooking and nutritional classes, and an outreach program that provides juvenile offenders with the opportunity to perform community service in the garden.
WE gardens began as a joint effort between Urban Ministry, Inc., a local non-profit that has aided Birmingham’s underserved populations for over thirty years, and Community Church without Walls, a unique mission-based Methodist church that believes that it is a community of people, not the trappings of steeples, alters and pews, that makes a church. Funding for the garden’s activities comes from sliding-scale rental fees for the plots, fundraisers and sale of fresh produce.
Birmingham has a population of 230,000 people and approximately 15 community gardens.
I think this is a really excellent project. Community gardens are a great way to encourage residents to get together and take pride in their own community. incorporating the community service aspect is also very good. It gives these young people a chance to give back to the community. Keep up the good work.