We all know about the legacy of historical underinvestment in healthy food options east of DC’s Anacostia River, but do we know about the teams of people who are working tirelessly to change this by planting seeds and trees, growing fruits and veggies, crafting spaces for their harvests to be enjoyed by their communities and educating our kids about the value of the soil under their feet? Meet a few of them here.
View Strong powered by The Interrupt at Washington View
2629 Douglass Road SE
Supported by: Novo Nordisk Inc., Bank of America, Carefirst, BBAR, National Housing Trust, Black Nurses Rock, American Diabetes Association, D.C. Central Kitchen, Capital Area Food Bank.
Washington View is a 365 unit affordable housing development in Ward 8, with sweeping views of the city. Thanks to The Interrupt (a non-profit collaborative that targets social determinants of health), this community now has a fresh fruit and vegetable garden that will be enjoyed and maintained by Washington View residents themselves.
The garden was officially opened to residents in early June. Scott Kratz, Senior Vice President of Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR) and Director of the 11th Street Bridge Park, was on hand to explain the rationale behind the project. “We’re bringing all our resources together in a single place-based investment for the 2500 people that live here. This neighborhood has one full-service grocery store that serves 75,000 residents.”
The garden’s bounty will be available for free at the View Strong Fresh Market next to the Washington View leasing office. The food garden is just one component of View Strong powered by The Interrupt’s community development strategy: The Skyland Workforce Center has already graduated its first cohort of construction workers from within the community as a result of this partnership. Washington View residents will be able to take advantage of health screenings courtesy of Black Nurses Rock, while also enjoying weekly transport to events at nearby Anacostia Park. “This is a seven figure investment over the next three years will be studied by the Global Food Institute at GW University to make sure we’re setting clear goals.” Kratz said. The idea is that this template of co-operation and collaboration can eventually be rolled out to other affordable housing developments across the city, should it prove successful.
View Strong powered by The Interrupt is part of a network of 11th Street Bridge Park community food plots in Wards 7 and 8. Others can be visited at the THEARC Farm (1901 Mississippi AVE SE), Union Temple Baptist Church (1225 W St SE), Allen Chapel AME (2439 Ainger Pl SE), National Children’s Center (3400 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE) and Wayne Place (138 Wayne Pl SE). For more information: www.buildingbridgesdc.org
Lederer Community Gardens
4801 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave NE
Supported By: DC DPR
Part of the larger DC Office of Planning’s improvement strategy for the Nannie Helen Burroughs Corridor in NE’s ward 7, Lederer Gardens straddles Marvin Gaye Park and is a vital community resource for healthful eating and education. Here you’ll find beds of herbs and veggies, fruiting trees, flowers, composting and garden tool rental facilities and regular courses and workshops on anything from honey harvesting to medicinal plant usage. Follow them on social media for weekly food and seed and plant giveaways. For more information: www.dpr.dc.gov
Photo: Matthew McClure
FRESHFARM FoodPrints Teaching Kitchen at Garfield Elementary School
2435 Alabama Ave SE
Supported by: FRESHFARM, Casey Trees, DCPS, DOEE
In August, Garfield Elementary School in Ward 8 revealed the results of a monthslong process of modernization and improvement by DCPS. The most exciting additions according to the kids? Ward 8’s first ever Teaching Kitchen and a food garden and fruit tree orchard planted where once there was only a hot asphalt parking lot.
The kitchen, garden and orchard are the culmination of a collaboration between FRESHFARM’s FoodPrints elective (food and garden experiential and interdisciplinary learning for Pre-K through 5th Grade), DCPS, Casey Trees and the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). Through FoodPrints, schoolkids learn practically: Fractions are taught by slicing up fruit from trees in the food garden. They get to use the Teaching Kitchen to measure out and mix ingredients for delicious treats like Juneberry coffee cake, taking the skills they learn back home where it’s hoped those healthy eating and cooking habits further influence their home environments.
Casey Trees’ installation of several species of fruiting tree (like Paw Paw) was made achievable through the Nature Near Schools program, an initiative by the DOEE that educates kids about the contribution that trees make to the health of the environment. Learners at Garfield Elementary not only get to name their trees but also practice pollinating the trees themselves using paintbrushes. www.freshfarm.org
The Fresh Food Factory at Sycamore and Oak
1110 Oak Dr SE
Supported by: Amanda Stephenson
Amanda Stephenson knows the magical power of nutrition. She started The Fresh Food Market and Eatery because healthy food changed her father’s life after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Having spent her childhood on a farm in Virginia, Stephenson harnessed her knowledge of plants and food as medicine to expand healthy food and eating options for low to middle income residents of wards 7 and 8. The neighborhoods in these areas are home to the highest number of DC’s citizens, yet conversely are historically underserved when it comes to grocery stores that offer food options that include fruits, veggies and healthful grains (There’s only one full service grocery store in Ward 8). These predominantly African American communities also suffer from a disproportionate number of non-communicable, lifestyle related illnesses like hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
Stephenson’s work is manifold. In addition to her food market at Sycamore and Oak in Congress Heights, she also runs food workshops structured towards nutritional education and entrepreneurship, teaching skills that attendees can take away to benefit their own communities while making additional income. You’ll also find her in school classrooms and even working with government agencies to change food policy. For more information: www.thefreshfoodfactory.com
Dreaming Out Loud
1303 Marion Barry Ave SE
Supported by: Jaren Hill Lockridge, Christopher Bradshaw
“When you talk about food in our community, you either talk about a big box grocery store like a Giant, or it’s a charity or pantry type situation. But here at Dreaming Out Loud, we’re about helping the community understand the economic opportunities attached to being able to feed ourselves,” says Jaren Hill Lockridge’ as she and Christopher Bradshaw guide me through the freshly painted Market space on Anacostia’s Marion Barry Ave. SE. Hill Lockridge is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Bradshaw is Founder and Executive Director of Dreaming Out Loud, a community-centered equitable food access support and development network based in Ward 8.
With a team of 30 people, over 50 years of combined experience in the food and food knowledge industry and three trucks doing constant food runs between farms, the Market and people’s homes, Dreaming Out Loud is doing more than most. The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) non-profit doesn’t just offer subscriptions to weekly fresh and locally grown food deliveries. They also host regular farmer’s markets, operate a ‘Food as Medicine’ initiative at Children’s National Medical Center, THEARC and Georgetown Pediatrics and run the Dream Entrepreneurship Program – an incubator designed to support and upskill small local growers, farmers, horticulturalists and other food industry business owners so that they can scale up and contribute to improving the nutritional network both within and outside DC.
Authentic words matter to Bradshaw and Hill Lockridge just as much as authentic action. It’s why they’ve co-opted Karen Washington’s term “Food Apartheid” to describe the dearth of fresh and nutritional food in communities east of the Anacostia rather than the oft-quoted “food desert.” “A desert is a naturally occurring place. This isn’t natural. This is systemic,” says Hill Lockridge of the entrenched and historic voids in nutritional access in wards 7 and 8. It’s also why their space isn’t a grocery store in the conventional and transactional sense, but a market where conversations, connections, growth and feeding can happen.
The Market on Marion Barry is slated to open to the public this year and it’s a physical manifestation of Dreaming Out Loud’s decades worth of work in neighborhoods throughout the DMV. In addition to a retail market space where you’ll be able to purchase food products from both Dreaming Out Loud farms at Fort Stanton, Kelly Miller Middle School and other local supplier partners, it has three kitchens, a café and socializing space, three huge walk-in fridges and an outdoor patio area where you’ll be able to kick back with a book or listen to a visiting speaker. For more information: www.dreamingoutloud.org
More healthy food resources East of the Anacostia River: www.marthastable.org; www.ward8farmersmarket.org
