On the Ground with Philadelphia Residents Transforming Vacant Lots to Combat Food Insecurity

Terrence Landham walks through a verdant lot of garden beds boasting red and green tomatoes and peppers, giant cabbage, and oversized melons. The warm summer air is filled with the smell of fragrant herbs—cultivated by the gardeners of the Strawberry Mansion Green Resource Center in North Philadelphia.

The garden is a stark contrast from where it began in 2012—an abandoned lot where Landham, the garden’s manager, said people would dump things such as stolen cars, old furniture, and even dead animals.

“It was really an eyesore,” Landham says. “It was across the street from the school, so some of the community members got together and decided that they wanted to make a green space out of it.”

Weed-riddled vacant and underutilized lots are familiar sights across Philadelphia neighborhoods. Philadelphia has about 40,000 of them, according to the City’s website, most caused by decades of neighborhood disinvestment. But some inspired communities are transforming lots into green spaces and centers of urban agriculture. Many are food-producing, which is crucial in a city stricken with poverty and food insecurity.

The Strawberry Mansion Garden Resource Center is a 51-plot garden in North Philadelphia. Five of those plots are reserved as community boxes where people are free to take what they need. Photo by Tracy Abiaka

There are about 264 community gardens and farms in Philadelphia, 70 percent of which are in high-poverty areas, and there is demand for more. Landham says there is a 20-person waiting list for his garden’s 51 plots. More community gardens, particularly in lower-income areas, can help ensure communities have adequate and affordable food supply.

Plentiful harvests have made buying vegetables this summer unnecessary for the gardeners at Strawberry Mansion, they say. And some gardens can produce high volumes, enough to sell and share. For example, Brewerytown Garden, in North Philadelphia, can produce more than 5,000 pounds of food a year, according to Sharon Hildebrand, one of its founders. It holds a weekly farmer’s market and donates excess to older people in the neighborhood.

DeMargo Bright has been gardening at Strawberry Mansion Garden Resource Center for 10 years. She said members have not needed to buy vegetables this summer thanks to what they’ve grown in the garden. Photo by Tracy Abiaka

According to The Pew Charitable Trusts, almost 25 percent of the Philadelphia population lives below the poverty line. And about 16 percent of households face food insecurity, according to Feeding America. Some lower-income households also live in food deserts— areas that have limited access to affordable and healthy food—leading to a reliance on fast food restaurants and corner stores, which often lack nutritious options. Community gardens and farms help provide a solution by filling the gap for fresh fruits and vegetables. However, they are being threatened by land insecurity and rising development.

Naw Ta Blu Moo has been gardening at the Reinhard Street Community Farm, in West Philadelphia, since March. It was founded by chef Benjamin Miller, on vacant lots in his West Philadelphia neighborhood, as part of the People’s Kitchen, which was a COVID response led partly by Miller, to provide free meals through a community kitchen and garden.

Benjamin Miller said there were more vacant lots than houses on his block, so he obtained a grant to start Reinhard Street Community Farm in 2022. The farm has now grown to 30 individual plots which are maintained by gardeners and volunteers. Photo by Tracy Abiaka

Miller invited Blu Moo to garden at Reinhard after she lost her parcel of 10 years, last year. The company that owned her former space, and gave her community permission to utilize it, decided to take it back for development. In fact, more than 140 community gardens and farms are no longer active since 2008, according to the Philadelphia Garden Data Collaborative. Part of the reason is redevelopment.

Miller was on the cusp of losing Reinhard, but a “strong coalition” saved it, he says. In 2022, he found it on a list for sheriff sales of tax-delinquent properties. That’s not uncommon for community gardens as numerous abandoned lots have tax liens. Community advocates who knew the law and had contacts in the city government, including the Public Interest Law Center, which advocates public use of vacant land for gardens and helps people navigate the complex legal process, succeeded in getting the land removed from the list.

The community had crowdfunded to purchase Reinhard’s land, but since that funding was no longer needed it went into growing the garden and providing free meals and produce, underscoring the importance of including community gardens in the fight against food insecurity.

“All of our gardens are completely open,” says Miller. “People are welcome to go in and harvest herbs or squash or watermelon as they see things ripening…There’s no limitation.”

Making food accessible to the community is also a goal of Strawberry Mansion. And there are five community plots open to the public, says Landham, where people can take things such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which provides education to community gardens, including Strawberry Mansion, through its community garden program, encourages established gardens to help tackle food insecurity through its City Harvest Initiative.

“It’s built to assist those gardens with the means or capability to allocate a parcel of land or plot to specifically grow for the neighborhood or grow for donation purposes,” says Justin Trezza, senior director of healthy neighborhoods at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

About 130 gardens are part of the initiative, which provides education and organically grown seedlings. Trezza says his organization gives out more than 250,000 seeds during a growing season.

Naw Ta Blu Moo, pictured at Reinhard Street Community Farm, has been gardening at the farm since losing her previous land to redevelopment. Photo by Tracy Abiaka

Serving lower-income families was part of Blu Moo’s critical work at her former garden. She ran a farmer’s market where families on government assistance, including WIC, could use their benefits to purchase her garden’s produce at a lower cost than grocery stores.

Now there are no longer alternatives nearby for her former customers, she says. Since the garden ceased operations, other community garden members in the surrounding areas worry about their future.

Uncertainty for the future grew when sheriff sales resumed in July. During the pandemic, the city had issued a moratorium on sheriff sales, granting temporary relief to gardeners on vulnerable grounds. Now that the freeze has lifted there’s an urgency to protect more lots.

Established by the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Land Bank works to put land back in the hands of the community by managing and returning vacant land to neighborhoods. In May, the Philadelphia City Council reauthorized the land bank to place priority bids on sheriff sales, allowing it to acquire land ahead of developers and transfer it back to the community or to secure it for preservation.

Recently, the city council allocated $1.1 million to reacquire 91 liens on community gardens for protection, mostly in Black and brown neighborhoods. It was an attempt to rectify a 1997 controversial move by the city to sell liens to a private lender, which resulted in a substantial amount of abandoned lots.

Preserving community gardens is done through the Neighborhood Gardens Trusts, a nonprofit land trust that, through an application process, secures ownership and long-term leases on the land of community gardens. So far, the organization has preserved 52 community gardens.

Although Strawberry Mansion is preserved and under lease, Landham hopes they will eventually own the property as leasing does not guarantee it will not be sold.

“We invested a lot in this community. It’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. We just hope that they can help us sustain our garden without them selling it from underneath us.” Terrence Landham

Officials do recognize the importance of urban agriculture. In June, a bill was passed by the Pennsylvania State Senate to offer more vacant lots for gardening and provide an easier pathway for people to own the land under existing gardens.

Jenny Greenberg, executive director of Neighborhood Gardens Trust, which supported the bill, welcomed the passing, especially since she said some people are “squatting” and starting gardens on lots without legal permission.

“We’re very excited,” she says. “There are many long-standing community gardens and individual gardens where people have been caring for formerly abandoned and neglected land for so long, and they do not have legal access or assurance that they’ll be able to garden on it in the future.”

The bill still needs to pass the state house, but, if successful, it will allow for adverse possession, granting ownership of a space if gardeners can prove they continuously used the land for at least 10 years, a decrease from the current 21-year requirement.

In addition, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation released a city-wide urban agriculture plan last year, which is described as “a 10-year comprehensive plan that will serve as a road map for a thriving local food system and economy, with an urban agricultural foundation.”

There are signs of progress in ensuring green space.

“[Protecting] green space should be a priority for our elected leaders,” says Miller. “These green spaces are really vital in the communities, for creating our quality of life.”

To help cultivate and sustain flourishing community gardens, people in Philadelphia can volunteer at one of the many community gardens. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has a map of community gardens on its website. Advocating for legislation for more investment and more availability of vacant land for community gardens is another way to help.

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