Growing To Give, Arizona Food Deserts

In Phoenix, many residents live in dead zones with little or no access to fresh food. They are called 'food deserts'.

There’s nothing simple about a South Phoenix resident’s simple trip to the grocery store to buy the basics. Lack of money tops the list. Then add in how to get to a major grocery store. Walking more than a mile in triple-digit temperatures to catch the light rail or bus is just the beginning. From there, it’s about a 15-minute mass-transit ride to the grocery store, which limits what the person can get — if too much is purchased, it could prove difficult to carry it all home, heat or not. Living with this reality are mothers and fathers, children, students, seniors on a fixed income, the disabled, all who are among the 13.1 percent of Arizonans who live in a “food desert,” a low-income area with low access to a grocery store, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture study. It is important to note the report is based on a survey to households and does not reflect the heartbreak of homelessness, so this percentage is considerably higher.

With 13.1 % of residents who lack basic access to nutritious food, Arizona exceeds the national average of 11.8 percent of people who are food insecure, according to a September 5, 2018, report from the US Department of Agriculture. Children are at highest risk with over 400 000 children going hungry in Arizona. The impact of food insecurity on children has far reaching consequences for the community. A healthy diet is vital for growing minds and bodies, so when dinner plates are empty or lack the nutrition young people need to develop properly, it’s not only the little children who suffer. We all do.

Maricopa

Maricopa, one of the wealthiest counties in the country has 55 of these food deserts where people have little or no access to locally grown fresh produce. Several key factors play into lack of food access including cost of transportation, and simply stated, people with limited income, lack of a vehicle to make the trip to the grocery store leaving them to rely on public transportation to get to food stores. Therein lies one of the major problems for people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, there are no grocery stores close by. A quick trip to a major food chain is not as simple as it is for most of America so convenience stores and fast-food restaurants are often their only close access to food. They also pay more for lower quality food and fresh most likely means a 3-day old banana beside the cash register. You can’t buy much of anything of nutritional value to fill empty stomachs at the local gas station.

The other major issue to food access is money. Food costs money of course and fresh food costs even more - more money surprisingly than packaged or fast food. Choosing a 99-cent package of macaroni dinner over a salad with all the fixings, for someone on limited income is the reality of life for many.

Growing To Give – Our Mission in Arizona

Our mission is to eliminate all 55 food deserts in Maricopa County by collaborating with other social impact groups in the valley. Our goal is to create a transformative change to urban agriculture by colonizing small city spaces with Crop Circle Gardens and Tomato Volcanoes to create a community-by-community supply chain of nutritious, fresh produce.

The Challenges of Growing Food In The Desert

Gardeners face more challenges growing vegetables in the desert than anywhere else. In Arizona, some of these challenges include scorching heat, ravenous birds, insects, sudden storms, rabbits, burrowing plant munchers and in some cases vandalism and theft.

A garden left to the summer sun will wither and die without a shade cover, which adds to the expense of a vegetable garden. Hungry desert birds can pick an unprotected tomato or pepper plant clean in a matter of hours. There is even a variety of pigeon that eats beans and greens. Unless protected with a screened cover, a variety of insects can severely damage a plant and limit production and harvest. Arizona is famous for the occasional summertime haboob, which bring high winds, rain and dust that can sandblast a plant to a bare stem. Rabbits will make short work of garden without the protective surround of fencing. Interestingly, fencing that is interwoven with a light impenetrable fabric prevents rabbits from seeing the vegetables that grow inside – unseen, they never get interested. Desert gophers are a common plant pest in less developed areas of Arizona towns and cities. Left to burrow and multiply, they can build a maze of interconnecting tunnels under an entire garden. They typically emerge at night to feast on the plants.

Garden Pods: A protective Home for a Tomato Volcano

Many, if not all these problems can be solved using Garden Pods to grow plants. Garden Pods, offered by Growing To Give, are unique enclosures that protect plants from the elements, creatures; animal and insect, vandalism and theft. Ideally, two Garden Pods are connected by an enclosed thoroughfare that provides access to plants growing within the pods. An opening at the top center of each pod permits filtered sunlight to enter the interior of the pod where multiple fruit bearing plants grow. The interior wall of each pod is 99% reflective further directing the filtered sunlight to plants that grow in a Tomato Volcano, which will grow thousands of tomatoes inside the pod.

Harvesting Vegetables Year Round

In the climate of Arizona, the filtered light environment within each pod permits continuous harvest all year long; even during the summer when temperatures can reach 120 degrees. Tomatoes are particularly adaptable, producing as many as 10,000 tomatoes over 12 months.

To keep plants productive, plants are severely pruned, cut back to a single stem, a couple of opposing branches and few leaves at the end of the first production year. The plant quickly regenerates, growing twice as fast and producing twice the fruit the second year because of its established root system. Pods are typically replanted in year three.