There’s a neighborhood in Baltimore called East Baltimore Midway.
In many ways, it’s a neighborhood that’s pretty typical for the area. 37% of residents live below the poverty level, there are drugs, there are gangs, there are kids running around everywhere.
But not everything about the neighborhood is so typical. See, they’ve got a community garden.
The Boone St. Community Garden is great for a few reasons:
- The garden gives kids something to do after school.
- Community members can learn about gardening, vegetables, and eating healthy.
- Fresh produce is sold to the neighborhood for $5-10/bag.
The local kids have become some of the garden’s main volunteers — and even its protectors.
The neighborhood kids were some of the first people to start working with the garden’s managers. Now, new volunteers sometimes even look to them as the experts.
Brian explains: “As soon as the garden came along, it actually stopped me from doing bad things. The farm gave me something to do instead of being destructive.”
He also says, “If [other people] don’t know how to do something, they always come ask me. They’re like, ‘Hey, you’ve been here for a while.’ I look at them real weird, like, hold on, y’all are asking me what to do?”
Pretty neat, huh? For the full story, check out the video:
