Karen Washington’s ‘garden of happiness’ brings healthy food choices to the Bronx

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TheGrio collaborated with The Weather Channel and Pattrn to share their series Faces of Change– people of color doing the work to promote green solutions and sustainable communities.

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Community activist Karen Washington is promoting urban farming in New York City and is on a mission to make the Bronx healthier with ‘The Garden of Happiness,’ a community garden in the ‘boogie-down’ Bronx.

According to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Survey, the Bronx is the least healthy county in New York City. This farm and a larger one upstate make up a green pipeline, bringing healthy food to the majority Black and brown community.

“People use the word ‘food desert,’ I coined the term “food apartheid,” says Washington, a food activist for the last 30 years. “Because first of all, I don’t live in a desert. This is not a desert. And so I coined the term ‘food apartheid’ because I want people to understand a food system that is definitely oppressive, racist, and is based on where you live, the color of your skin, and how much money you have.”

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Washington adds, “I want people to start having that conversation: Why in the greatest country in the world where we grow enough food and we waste enough food, that food is not getting down to the people that need it the most?“

Check out the full video below for more.

About Faces of Change:

As the nation remembers the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and observes the inauguration of a new President who has affirmed a commitment to climate science, The Weather Channel and Pattrn showcase people of color already doing the work to promote green solutions and sustainable communities.

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