Community gardens planting seeds for a healthier Vallejo

People’s Garden coordinator Vilma Aquino, right, gets down in the plants with Betty Frank Senior Lunch Program volunteer Cynthia Owens as the two harvest greens for the lunch program recently. Photo by Mike Jory/Times Herald.

By Irma Widjojo
Times Herald
10/02/2011

Excerpt:

With three Vallejo areas deemed food deserts, a child obesity rate of 32.8 percent, and an abundance of vacant lots, many Vallejoans agree that the city needs healthful food options.

A few residents have chosen community gardens to kill two birds with one stone: Use the vacant lots productively and produce healthier food for the community. However, the city of Vallejo has no ordinances for such ventures, a fact that has proven problematic.

A city council member has planted the seeds to address the lack of guidance for city officials, but garden organizers are tilling the soil in the meantime. Coincidentally, the community gardens are emerging at about the same time the federal government recently deemed that three South Vallejo areas are “food deserts” because their residents live more than a mile from a supermarket.

Read the complete article here.