The AP wrote an interesting article about Pastor Robert Jeffrey and his two-year struggle to bring healthy, organic food to his Central District neighborhood, historically a low-income and predominantly African American neighborhood. While farmer's markets grow more popular in some Seattle neighborhoods, organizers say many low-income people stay away, for reasons that include perception, price, location and problems such as the inability to accept electronic food stamp cards. A farmer's market in a low-income area south of Seattle closed about two years ago. So Jeffrey came up with the idea to let the community grow the produce itself, which would create jobs and increase community involvement.
His organization, Black Dollar Days Task Force, leased 22 acres of land and planted greens, with the aim of selling its crops and those of some Eastern Washington farmers in the parking lot of Jeffrey's church. But lack of farming knowledge nearly led to the death of the entire inaugural crop. But Jeffrey's group is pressing on. "We know that the ultimate end of this thing is to create self-sufficiency," Jeffrey said. "We found that self-sufficiency has to start from the ground, literally from the ground." The report includes the progress of a similar movement in Oakland, Calif., a low-income and often violent area of the Bay Area. Their farmer's market is run by some of the state's black farmers, but the organizer admits they have yet to come up with a financially successful model.
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