Areas called “food deserts” are all over Houston, typically in low-income neighborhoods where access to supermarkets is as scarce as water is in the desert. According to data from the UT Health Science Center at Houston, large swaths of the city are considered to be food desert.
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More than 500,000 Houstonians live in one, according to KPRC’s Sofia Ojeda.
Many of these areas could also be considered “food swamps,” where fast food and unhealthy options from convenient stores are more accessible than an H-E-B, Kroger or Whole Foods.
A solution: The community garden.
Dozens of these gardens are found all over Houston and offer fresh fruits and vegetables at an affordable price – and likely healthier than what you’d find at the grocery store, according to Lettice Live founder Karena Poke.
They offer more than just the fruits of gardeners’ labor. Volunteers often help cultivate the land and grow crops, a positive both for the community and volunteers themselves.
They also teach workshops for people to learn how to grow edible gardens in their own homes. That’s of critical importance to a lot of vulnerable communities, where transportation, accessibility and affordability of fresh food are scarce.
“I believe that if you are going to take control of your health, it starts with you growing your own food,” Poke said. “Though Lettuce Live, we believe in growing food, growing communities and growing healthy people.”
Lettuce Live is a community garden based in Missouri City – mere miles from one of the largest food deserts in Houston’s southwest side.
“Our mission is to inspire more people to grow their own foods,” Poke said. “That’s number one.”
Poke founded Lettuce Live in 2012 to help combat the lack of healthy food options in Memphis. Since then, she’s moved herself and her crops to Houston to serve the community.
During the February freeze, the garden lost almost all of its crop, Poke said. Now in May, full blooms of vegetables, fruits and even a peach tree that matured in the cold are gracing the half-acre sight in Buffalo Run Park.
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Ivy WallsAt less-than-grocery-store prices, food from community gardens is healthier because it’s cut from the vine the day it’s purchased, Poke said. That helps maintain a level of nutrition that shipped foods can’t guarantee.
Poke also sees community gardens as a way for people to save money.
“If you are on a fixed income (buying from a community garden) is going to make the difference in your paycheck at the end of the day,” she said. “You didn’t have to buy onions, bell peppers or beans because you have it.”
There’s been more interest in community gardening all around the city since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poke said more and more people, young and old, are flocking to gardens to pass the time.
While they averaged single-digit volunteers each week before 2020, nearly two dozen show up each Wednesday and Saturday to help.
“It’s such a beautiful place,” Poke said of her garden. “You hear laughing and talking and people looking forward to seeing one another.”
More community gardens are able to accept benefits from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as payment, including Poke’s Missouri City garden. That means more people who need healthier foods in food deserts are able to get healthier foods from these gardens.
Nothing outside of a major policy change to address redlining of groceries in Houston will fix the food desert problem. But community gardens provide a much-needed step to help those in need immediately.
Houston has plenty of city-sponsored community gardens, and dozens of others are located throughout Harris County and beyond.
Have you ever volunteered at a community garden? Let me know on Twitter: @jayrjordan.
