DC Urban Greens: The Farm Paving the Way for Growth in Ward 7

Rows of arugula, lettuce, and other fresh greens are the bedrock of the farm, home to spiders and lizards scuttling along the wooden fencing. Lelia Parker, a farmer, bemoans being next to a “bad neighbor”—in this case, groundhogs— who’ve been eating at the lettuce for the past season.

“They don’t like peppers very much,” Parker says after pointing out the chewed remains of some lettuce, “that’s why we plant back here where they can’t reach.” Just like the rows of vegetables spewing from the ground in the main garden, tall green pepper plants grow in numbered rows alongside onions and chives.

In the Ward 7 ‘food desert’ of D.C., the group that owns this farm—of which Parker is a member—DC Urban Greens, paved the way for growth and recovery.

DC Urban Greens is a nonprofit group centered in Fort Dupont, specializing in the growth of fresh produce for residents in Wards 7 and 8. The group organized a ‘grocery walk’ last October with other nonprofits, calling attention to the lack of fresh produce in supermarkets and the lack of supermarkets themselves. Since then, the group has gone about their business as supermarkets have improved their stock.

“This store was in need of some work and we devoted ourselves to that,” Victor Harden, the manager at the Benning Ridge Safeway, said. “I think from a lot of the input that we’ve gotten, I think we’ve done a fairly good job at bringing it up to standard.” Though he has worked for the company for almost five years, Harden has only been manager since October, transferred from Ward 3.

Wards 7 and 8 have been notoriously dubbed as ‘food deserts’ by locals; only three supermarkets were reported to provide for the roughly 150,000 residents of both wards. The supermarkets were long distances away from locals and the produce sold was not fresh, showing signs of rot.

“In terms of fresh fruit and vegetables, it’s like scraping at the bottom of the barrel.” Paris, a Ward 7 resident who opted to not give her last name, said. She referred to the Safeway close to her house—the same one Harden works at—though she admitted she hadn’t been there in awhile. “They don’t give a lot—they give us the leftovers.”

Organizing the ‘grocery walk’ with other groups, such as DC Hunger Solutions, DC Urban Greens caused enough of a stir people came into the grocery stores to see the damages themselves.

“News came down there one day asking questions about the service, the food, and the people in the neighborhood just [to] let them know their food isn’t fresh all the time,” Parker said. She believes confidently the demonstration affected change, based on the reaction from the mayor and the fresher produce.

DC Urban Greens, going about their business modestly, encourages volunteers to participate; they sell their produce from their farm every Saturday.