The Garden Project: Bringing Diverse Voices into the Urban Gardening / Food Security Conversation

There is an exciting movement going on around urban agriculture. In Seattle and surrounding communities the conversations and projects are particularly vibrant. More and more of us are thinking about what a truly local, sustainable food culture might look like and are taking steps to bring our ideas to life.

As a Seattle native, life-long resident of the Central District and Rainier Valley, a media professional and community activist I have witnessed and been a part of so many of the historic changes that have shaped my community. I see this growing food movement as another significant evolution in how we imagine and interact in our communities.

I want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to influence how this movement takes shape. Right now voices from the African American, Latino, Native American and South Pacific Islander communities are marginal in this conversation about urban gardening. I want to help bring these communities fully into the food justice, security and sustainability conversation. That is the vision shaping The Garden Project.

The Garden Project is a community gardening, multimedia and documentary project. Our goal is to nurture a sense of community around urban agriculture in the neighborhoods and communities of central and south Seattle. Over the course of ten months our project will engage several families from low income, working class and minority communities in the process of starting gardens in their yards or container gardens in their homes.

Rainier Community Center Garden in Winter

The goal is to demonstrate how families of every size, economic background, living in homes of various sizes and types and juggling even the busiest schedules can have fun growing and consuming their own chemical-free produce. Each family will cultivate a different variety of crops based on their health profile and what would make healthy additions to their current eating habits.

The families will meet monthly as a group to discuss their successes, failures and what they are learning in a public forum. These monthly meetings will also serve as public outreach for the project. At the meetings community members will have access to information about how they can start their own garden projects including free and low cost programs provided by local non-profit and government agencies. Our participating families will be encouraged to openly share their experiences and growing knowledge in support of their neighbors who express interest in starting their own gardens.

As the harvest comes in program participants will prepare delicious meals centered around what they have grown and share them at a dinner party where all of the families, garden coaches, and community members will gather.

The entire process will be documented on video and a dvd series will be created for use as a part of a community outreach campaign to promote urban gardening as a useful tool for families to improve their quality of life. The outreach campaign will consist of a series of health, gardening and community building workshops conducted in conjunction with partner organizations.

We are reaching out to the entire Seattle community to help make this project a success. We welcome everyone’s participation and support. To learn more about the project and how you can get involved visit our website at http://thegardenproject.ijoarts.com or contact Inye Wokoma at inye@ijoarts.com.

About the author: Inye Wokoma is founder and director of The Garden Project.

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