Farming takes root in Seattle-area food desert | Business

Nine thousand miles separate Veronica Karanja from her mother’s farm in Kenya and where she now works in Kent, Washington.

Karanja’s expertise – and her vegetables, which are culturally significant in Kenya – are helping transform a food wasteland south of Seattle by delivering freshly picked produce at the seasonal East Hill Farmers Market.

“It makes me feel so good,” she said a few days before the market opened in mid-June. “I’m doing the work I’m supposed to be doing.”

Eating healthy depends largely on access to affordable, nutritious food – and that often depends on being close to grocery stores and having enough income to buy groceries. But some communities do not have such access due to historical lack of investment and other systemic problems.

Karanja farms within one of these communities known as food deserts.

“Our mission is to have a healthier community,” said Xavier Wurttele-Brissolesi of Living Well Kent, an immigrant-led nonprofit that promotes healthier, fairer food systems in the 132,000 community, of whom 13% living in poverty and one in three people was born outside the United States, according to 2019 census data.

“The grocery store is maybe two miles away,” said Wurttele-Brissolesi, describing what shopping in a food wasteland can look like. “But to get there, you might have to walk to the bus, and if you have four to six children how are you supposed to get enough food home on the bus? It’s easier to get a frozen pizza from the corner store. “

Living Well Kent sells farmers’ products through a community-sponsored farming program that gives customers access to a range of products on a subscription or membership fee basis; and it sets up the weekly market where shoppers can pay for the vegetables with federal nutrition grants like SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“In Seattle, the urban farming scene can seem like a privileged place when one relies on the benefits of SNAP,” said Wurttele-Brissolesi, who leads the food access program that supports the work of immigrant farmers. “You can feel like you don’t belong and our goal is to help the people who need help the most.”

King County, where Kent is located, is home to the Tokul Soil, which is one of the most productive soils in the world thanks to the ash from the state’s volcanoes. On five acres leased by Living Well Kent, Karanja and nine other immigrant farmers grow crops including vegetables, tomatoes, carrots, onions, beets, radishes and peppers. You also have access to a greenhouse and technical support. Tools, seeds and water are free for them.

The city of Kent is one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the country. The farmers themselves represent countries like Somalia, Zimbabwe and Iraq, so their farming methods are rooted in the Middle East and Africa. The group also includes farmers from Mexico and Afghanistan. Living Well Kent encourages them to grow vegetables that matter in the country they started in.

Managu – a leafy vegetable grown in Kenya – grows on Karanja’s property. She uses it as a partition between other vegetables, a method she learned in Kenya to maximize her yield.

Another plants corn on the edge of their property and uses the corn stalks to support vines with sweet sugar peas.

“When the wind comes, nothing falls,” she said.

Selling their purely organic products accounts for 80% of their annual income, Karanja said. Together with Managu, she grows terere, a leafy vegetable, and kahurura, a pumpkin-like gourd.

More importantly, her freshly picked crops feed her, her husband, and their three children. While her mother taught her how to farm in Kenya, she teaches her children how to farm in Kent.

“I know you are what you eat,” she said. “You eat healthy food, you will be healthy. Even your heart cannot be healthy if you don’t eat healthy foods. These are foods grown without chemicals, only with organic fertilizers, and for those who cannot afford it.” can buy them, I donate it through the churches. “

In 2020, Living Well Kent only operated a farm stall, not a market, because of the pandemic. They harvested 4,000 pounds of produce.

This year the goal of the organization is 10,000 pounds. To do this, Living Well Kent needed funds to lease farmland, pay for water and seeds, and keep the greenhouse running. “Farmers from hotter climates find the greenhouse very valuable,” said Wurttele-Brissolesi.

Around 65% of these costs will be covered in 2021 by funding from the American Heart Association’s Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, named after the Kaiser Permanente CEO who died in 2019. The fund invests in local, evidence-based efforts to reduce health inequalities and address social determinants of health.

For farmers like Karanja, the growing season does not end the nutritious food supply. In the winter, she’ll use the extra produce she’s prepared and kept in her freezer to prepare meals – expanding the influence of her farming in the Kentish food wasteland.

If you have any questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

Copyright is owned by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. Individual, media, and non-commercial educational and awareness-raising efforts are permitted free of charge and without further request to link, quote, extract, or reprint these stories in any medium as long as no text is altered and the correct attribution is made to American Heart Association News.

Other uses, including for profit educational products or services, must comply with the American Heart Association’s copyright approval guidelines. See full terms of use. These stories may not be used to promote or endorse any commercial product or service.

DISCLAIMER: This website and its services are not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always speak to your doctor for diagnosis and treatment, including your specific medical needs. If you have or suspect a medical problem or illness, contact a qualified doctor immediately. If you are in the United States and have a medical emergency, call 911 or call for medical help right away.