Read the full article by Lisa Thibodeau at RAM’s New Times Magazine
On a busy corner in West Sacramento, surrounded by high-density housing and railroad tracks, sits a 1-half acre oasis of soil and green shoots. A group of young people tend to organized rows of freshly planted carrots, squash and edible flowers that are neatly lined with mulch. They are part of the Urban Farm Youth Leadership Development Program, a paid 6 to 10-week agriculture class taught by Three Sisters Gardens.
Three Sisters Gardens is a nonprofit organization with four urban garden plots in West Sacramento and a 1-acre tree nursery in Sacramento that has been operating since 2018 and aims to teach sustainable farming skills to local youth while contributing to an equitable food system.
The youths (up to age 25) laugh and fist-bump one another as they load trays of shishito pepper plants into the back of a van. The veggies will be harvested later this summer and will feed people in Sacramento’s most vulnerable communities who live in food deserts with little access to nutritious and affordable food.
In Sacramento, these communities deal with food insecurity and are located in “food swamps,” areas that are oversaturated with fast food restaurants, which provide low-nutritional food and can contribute to various health issues such as diabetes and obesity.