A small group of Inglewood residents this spring launched a learning garden in a local park, which is managed through weekly committee meetings, events and maintenance schedules, according to a story by the Los Angeles NBC affiliate.
"I prayed to God for something like this to happen," the story quoted 77-year-old Frank Scoggins, a garden co-founder. "It's hard to get kids interested, but we want to get more young people involved."
Inglewood is a southwest Los Angeles County community where the majority of residents are African-American and Latino, according to the 2010 Census. It was a farming community when it incorporated in 1908, the story said. After the Great Depression, most farmland gave way to industrialization.
Despite its agricultural past, Inglewood is one of many L.A. communities identified as 'food deserts,' areas that lack adequate access to fresh produce and instead offer an abundance of liquor stores and fast food restaurants.
NBC reporter Lisa Rau spoke to the director of the UC Cooperative Extension Common Ground Program, Yvonne Savio about the growing interest in developing community gardens to serve communities like Inglewood. Savio said there are 73 community gardens Los Angeles County; 64 percent of their gardeners make less than $15,000 per year.
"There will always be a much greater need than all of our collective agencies and efforts that are made out there," Savio was quoted. "But more is always better when it comes to lots of information and helping people."
The Common Ground Program was created in 1978 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture identified 20 major metropolitan cities that would use funding to help low-income communities grow their own food. Common Ground trains gardeners to provide nutrition and growing education in low-income areas.
