While crime, pollution and economic torpor continue to impact the people of North Richmond, it’s what isn’t there that may be the most important single factor in the health of residents: healthy food.
In this unincorporated community of about 3,000, there hasn’t been a single restaurant or grocery store for years.
But local youths and other residents are leading an effort to establish urban farming in the community as a source of fresh fruits and vegetables. The Lot of Crops project, a nonprofit urban gardening effort, is funded in part by North Richmond’s mitigation fund, which is collected to offset the effects of the landfill’s pollution.
The project received $56,000 in 2010 and $100,000 from the mitigation fund this year.
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