City P-Patches Help Feed Low Income Residents

Innovative "Lettuce Link" program gets fresh produce to the people.

by By Holly Borba
photo by Eric Nelson

As people depart from the white mobile home that is the Operational Emergency Center Food Bank in South Seattle, they plunk their bags down in the yard and begin to unload or trade away undesirable goods. Bags of beans and frozen plastic bags of what is, presumably, a salmon-colored soup, lie strewn throughout the yard. One woman has collected around 20 or more bags of the salmon-colored stuff. Shaking her head, she holds up a bag and says, "I can't believe people are leaving this behind." One man is puzzled by yet another mystery bag. He hands it to a woman who says, "Cinnamon." He takes it back, holds it from afar, squeezes it, and stares at it with the realization that he now has a lifetime supply.

While no one would likely argue that this approach to hunger and poverty is anything but stopgap, the question remains: is anyone concerned about solutions anymore, or have the problems become so entrenched that they've been sentenced to wallow forever in an institutional mire?

A Seattle program called Lettuce Link has answered that question with a multi-faceted approach to overcoming the food problems of low-income people.

Through the combined efforts of the Fremont Public Association, the P-Patch Community Garden program and WSU's extension Food Garden Project, the Lettuce Link program was conceived in 1988. The impetus behind the effort was the realization by local gardeners and activists that more produce is grown that can be used by P-Patch growers. At the same time, the organizers witnessed a lack of fresh produce available at local food banks. One of the original goals was to deliver excess produce to local food banks.

Currently, the Lettuce Link program coordinates about 40 volunteer drivers who pick up produce at six different community gardens on a weekly basis from June first through about the third week of October. Gardeners at the sites, some of whom grow specifically for food bank donation, prepare produce for the drivers by washing it, weighing it, and bagging it. The drivers then take the produce to eight different food banks.

Lettuce Link coordinator Wendy McClure says the P-Patch donations help round out diets which would otherwise be largely produce-deficient. "Gardeners in other cities donate, but most cities don't have a formal organizing structure," said McClure. "People have donated more as a result, which was the goal."

A major goal of the program is to promote the obvious, though somewhat radical notion that people can also supplement their diets by growing their own food. To this end, the Lettuce Link program sponsors gardening workshops with the help of WSU's Food Garden Project, distributes vegetable seeds to food bank clients and refers those who need gardening space to the P-Patch program.

A city program that is entering its twenty-first year, P-Patch operates 32 community garden sites throughout the city. The number of plots per site ranges anywhere from seven to 280 plots. But with a waiting list of over 700 people, P-Patch space has always been a problem. New sites can't keep pace with increasing demand. Every year, P-Patch develops additional sites. This year, for instance, new sites were created in Queen Anne, Belltown, and Hillman City.

"Enthusiasm grows every time a new garden opens so the numbers on the waiting list continue to grow," said McClure. "It's encouraging on the one hand that so many people are interested in gardening but the need far exceeds the capacity."

To Lettuce Link organizers, the belief that certain low-income areas of the city could benefit greatly from garden site development led to direct action. In 1992, McClure and Barbara Donnette, Co-Manager of the P-Patch program, were in Philadelphia for the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) conference. Both women were inspired by Philadelphia's community gardens in low-income housing areas. On the way back to Seattle, they pledged to make similar improvements in Seattle's "garden communities." (Ironically, public housing units in Seattle are called garden communities because they are so spread out).

After many neighborhood council meetings, door to door networking, drafting grant proposals, and gaining assistance from the Seattle Housing Authority, community gardens were developed in two low-income housing sites, Holly Park and Rainier Vista.

The Lettuce Link program coordinates the work at these sites by providing expertise, equipment and supplies. In addition to the sites at Holly Park and Rainier Vista, the program also assists gardeners at the Beacon Avenue P-Patch.

Beyond the social welfare benefits, providing residents in public housing with places to garden has become a safety issue. Recent soil tests conducted by the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) near the housing units revealed lead levels significant enough to affect vegetables grown there.

According to Bruce Murray of SHA's Resident Services Department, rain washing down on exterior paint leached into the soil thereby creating the lead concentrations.

For now, residents have been warned about the problem and those who garden do so at their own risk. SHA is currently in the process of developing new policies which will prohibit individual gardens. As an alternative, the department has announced its commitment to provide a portion of the funding necessary for supplies and staff to manage additional community garden sites.

"We are looking at community gardens as a viable alternative," said Murray. "We recognize that many people with low incomes garden as a means to supplement their diets with fresh produce."

Donnette sees additional site development and staff as a very positive step. "The garden communities really need someone to put in a full-time effort," she said, pointing out the possibility of garden development in the Yesler Terrace and High Point housing sites. "There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed for residents who garden, such as transportation and childcare."

According to McClure, the money offered by the Housing Authority is approximately one-third of what it would cost to hire a full-time staff person. As a result, the P-Patch Advisory Council is currently pursuing grants to help cover the additional costs. "We want to be sure this effort continues so we are trying to pull together as many groups as we can," said Donnette.

While additional site development in the public housing areas will be the focus for the first year, local gardening advocates hope to add an entrepreneurial element in the second year. This will probably entail some form of community supported agriculture (CSA) or local market opportunity for low income gardeners to sell their produce.

Donnette and McClure will gather inspiration and new ideas when they attend another ACGA conference at the end of August in Chicago. "The community gardening network is pretty strong and there are a lot of good models out there," Donnette said.

Hopefully, if the two come back as charged as they were in 1992, low-income gardeners should expect to see some new growth in their communities.

-Holly Borba is a Seattle writer.

Federal budget cuts threaten Urban Gardening Program

Recent cuts to a federal program run by the Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service suggest that support from the higher echelons of government is diminishing, not growing.

For 17 years, the federal Urban Gardening Program (UGP) has supported community gardens in 23 of the nation's largest cities, including Seattle. Specifically targeted to urban garden food production for low-income families and individuals, the program has helped thousands of the poorest city residents grow fresh food worth over $16 million.

Prior to 1993, the program had had its own, independent line-item in the Cooperative Extension budget. But in 1993, the UGP's $3.6 million budget was mixed in with one of the Extension Service's general funds. That means urban residents must compete with rural programs, which already get the lion's share a shrinking pie. Unfortunately, the Clinton Administration's budget cutting only makes matter worse.

Take for instance Seattle's Urban Gardening Program. The program has approximately 13,000 participants served by a staff of three. The budget for 1994 is uncertain which could mean staff cuts. In 1993, the program received $96,000. Holly Kennell, coordinator of Seattle's UGP, has coined an analogy to describe the new budget formula. She calls it the "peanut butter effect." "What they've done is like spreading the peanut butter so thin on a piece of bread that you can't taste it anymore," Kennell said.

In the wake of federal cutbacks, the fate of programs like the one in Seattle will now reside in the hands of the state. The federal budget maneuvering essentially eliminated a federal mandate to the program. Therefore, it is now up to individual states to decide if they will continue to support the programs. In Washington State, the passage of Initiative 601 last fall renders this decision even more difficult. Washington State University, through which the Cooperative Extension program is run, is concerned about what impact Initiative 601 will have on the university.

So far, according to Kennell, the state has not said they will discontinue the program. Instead, they will most likely trim staff wherever possible. For instance, George Pinyuh, one of Kennell's co-workers and head of the Master Gardener Program, is planning to retire. Most likely, his position will not be refilled. "I wouldn't say that the program is alive and well," Kennell said. "It's alive and changing."

According to Kennell, the Urban Gardening Program has been around long enough to gain the support and trust of city gardeners. "It would be a real shame at this point if they eliminated the program."

-Holly Borba

The American Community Gardening Association is preparing a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy expressing concern about changes in the Urban Gardening Program. For more imformation, contact ACGA Board member Tessa Huxley, Director, Battery Parks, City Parks Corporation, 75 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280. Or call (212) 267-9700.

[Home] [This Issue's Directory] [WFP Index] [WFP Back Issues] [E-Mail WFP]