Accessing Home AmeriCorps Members celebrated this year’s beautiful Earth Day by once again assisting The West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation with their garden!
The West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation (WEHDC) Sankofa Initiative works to address modern health, financial and community challenges through increased access to the healthy foods that are traditional to the West End’s ethnically diverse community.
West Elmwood Housing’s Earth Day event this year focused on readying their beautiful community gardens for the 2024 farmers market season. With a massive food insecurity problem existing in the West End, nearly 33% of West End residents participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) programming. The community gardens and open green spaces cleaned up this Earth Day are a key component in enabling Sankofa to realize the overall mission and goal of West Elmwood Housing, by focusing on food security and urban farming, while providing culturally relevant food to the immigrant and refugee population in the West Elmwood neighborhood.
We spent the day with Accessing Home at the Sankofa House where we helped to prepare their community garden for the season! On top of getting the community garden ready where neighbors can come to spend their time, the Sankofa kitchen also grows its own produce to give away at farmers markets. Last year, they produced over $250,000 worth of free produce for the community–their goal this year is to grow over $500,000 worth!”
Amanda Forget, National and Community Service Program Associate
State Commission for National and Community Service; ServeRI
“The clean-up went great!” said NWBRV’s Accessing Home Program Manager Tyler Martin. “We had great weather and wonderful community involvement.”
The Sankofa Community Garden, a reclaimed area which includes 30,000 square feet of gardens throughout Providence’s West End, provides space for low-income Providence residents to grow food. Additionally, the garden hosts an educational partnership between Nowell Leadership Academy and Dorcas International.
The level of hunger and food insecurity in Rhode Island today is the highest in New England. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 14% of Rhode Islanders, one in seven Rhode Island households, are experiencing food insecurity and are unable to meet their basic food needs. 19,400 households report the most severe conditions associated with hunger
“It’s really incredible to see the opportunities that these gardens have created for people in Providence,” said NWBRV Director of Resource Development and Communications, Meg Rego. “I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that being able to grow your own food, and in turn take ownership over your own income and health, has had on people. It’s amazing.”
The Accessing Home initiative allows NWBRV to partner with community development organizations, public housing authorities, and other non-profits to equip Rhode Islanders with the resources necessary to acquire and maintain affordable, high quality housing. For more information or to join this program, please contact Tyler Martin at tmartin@neighborworksbrv.org or visit us online.
