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Wilmington, Delaware, the largest and most populous city within the state, is also home to one of the largest food deserts within the area. Food desert is defined as an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. According to DelawareOnline, "Sixty-one percent of Delawareans live in Census tracts where there is no grocery store, according to a report by the Institute for Public Administration, a unit of the University of Delaware’s School of Public Policy and Administration. Twenty-seven percent of the state’s population live in census tracts, usually consisting of 1,200 to 8,000 people, that only have one grocery store." In addition to this issue, urbanization has also led to many other detriments, especially to the environment. Cities are often known as the centers of consumption (energy, materials, etc.), greenhouse gas production, waste and emissions of pollutants in water and air.
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Why Urban Gardening?
As explained by the RUAF Foundation, "Urban agriculture plays an important role in enhancing urban food security since the costs of supplying and distributing food to urban areas based on rural production and imports continue to increase, and do not satisfy the demand, especially of the poorer sectors of the population. Next to food security, urban agriculture contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the urban poor and women in particular, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes." In an effort to solve these community issues through something that I love doing, The Urban Garden Initiative was born. At TUGI, we believe that we can not tackle these issues alone though, instead we aim to provide the youth the knowledge and skillset to take on these challenges together. |
