Fresh produce in a food desert

The following blog was written by Brittany Angst, a senior Accounting major on Oxford's campus, about her volunteer work with HUGS (Hamilton Urban Garden Systems) at Booker T. Washington Community Center.

This summer I have been volunteering for Hamilton community garden systems (HUGS). The organization encourages individuals living within the city of Hamilton to grow their own produce using creative methods that require much less space and energy than traditional gardening. I have learned so much while volunteering at the Booker T. Washington Community Center garden! I never knew that peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers could be grown inside raised boxes so easily.The organization has quite a few gardens all over the city and residents are encouraged to help care for the gardens. I worked at a new area that they created that is a part of the Booker T. Washington Community Center. Twice a week I would water all the plants in the evenings, and occasionally I would even pick a few weeds. 

The methods that were used to grow the produce made watering and caring for the garden very easy and I was impressed with how much easier it was to grow plants in small boxes instead of the traditional giant space-consuming rows. I am looking forward to seeing just how much food can be grown in such a limited amount of space. The gardens offer residents a chance to grow vegetables and healthy foods that they may not have access to otherwise. There is no supermarket in the immediate area, and that makes it difficult and very inconvenient and costly to go out and buy produce.The vegetables from the community centers garden will be given out to the members of the surrounding community so that they can have access to healthy fresh produce without having to spend a lot of money. I speak from experience when I say that growing something in a garden is very empowering and I think that it will be a great project for the children at the community center in the future. It is a great way to teach them about food and nutrition and nature without having to ever leave their neighborhood.

One thing that really impressed  me was how interested in the gardens people were. The children at the community center painted and decorated the boxes and the area around them, and adults would often stop by to ask me questions about who the gardens belonged to and what was being grown. People would comment about how well things were growing and seemed to be very impressed with what could be grown in such a small space. I am very proud of everything that we managed to grow at the community center and people's interest in it, especially considering the newness of the garden. I think that the garden is going to be a great tool for educating kids and I hope that it continues to be as successful in the future as it has been this summer.