Re: Here in San Diego, many of the working poor have more than one low paying job just to get by and that does not allow time for planting, weeding, watering, chatting with "neighbors" and all the other things we gardeners enjoy about community gardens.
Friends, Ehrenreich's book, "Nickeled and Dimed" was a clear-eyed book on the crappy service sector jobs our economy has created instead of the highly paid, value added jobs that we need. Ehrenreich went into her "research" of this book with the knowledge that the escape hatch back to her comfortable, upper-middle class life was there in her purse: the working poor's idea of an escape hatch is the lotto. Here at the Clinton Community Garden in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, the working poor have been a large part of our garden community. In NYC, the gardener in those families of working poor will be the grandmother who watches over the kids and cooks for the parents who work different, multiple shifts as laborers, dishwashers, maids or what have you. These grandmothers in our part of the world are Hispanic, largely Cental American, Mexican or Puerto Rican and alway seem to have small grandchildren in tow. Interestingly, while food is grown, it is the flowers that seem to be the most important to these families, and sometimes these beds will be kept ablaze with flowers all season as a kind of cutting garden. The idea of having fresh flowers throughout the season seems to be amazingly important to many of these grandmothers. During the summer, on their days off, usually mid-week, we'll see the fathers and mothers in our front formal garden for a few minutes with their kids, sitting on the benches, the lawn or walking around looking at the flower beds. One Mexican construction laborer (the daily shape-up kind, not the unionized white guys from the suburbs who have the pick-up trucks and pay these guys cash) just lies on our lawn sometimes. His wife and kids know where to find him, on his back, gathering strength from the earth. Sometimes the value of a community garden is just in being pretty, accessible and there so bone-tired working people can re-create themselves. Others, when they can, garden. In Hell's Kitchen, with so little good open space that is free of broken glass and dog crap, a lawn, with flower beds and benches, a beehive, an apple tree, grape arbor and a public herb garden takes on a greater importance than it would in other places where these are common. I'm honored to be a public gardener in this space and work very hard to give folks who will never spend the carfare to go to a botanical garden some flowers and green. Yes, the shame of hunger in this country is very much with us: our gardeners here donate their excess to local food shelters and individuals. Some like me also give time to local soup kitchen and other food security efforts, but sometimes I think the best thing that I do is grow dahlias when I watch a Mexican grandmother point them out as a flower that grows back home. Best wishes, Adam Honigman Volunteer, <A HREF="http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/";>Clinton Community Garden</A> << Subj: [cg] Nickel & Dimed Community Garden Style Date: 4/17/03 8:35:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I have read Nickel & Dimed and have also had some experience trying to get a community garden going along the border - but in San Diego County. I do believe the two experiences are related since in the book she writes about her experiences in the urban workforce where many people find themselves working very hard for very little reward and sometimes it seems that trying to get a community garden started feels like a lot of work for very little reward. Fortunately, her book was a short term experience and most community gardening is a commitment to at least the first harvest time if not the next planting year and beyond. Community gardening does increase the amount of healthy food available to poor people, but in reality too many of them are working at the sorts of jobs that require most of their time and energy. This was the problem I had when trying to start up a community garden a few years ago. People were just too busy trying to get by to make the commitemtn needed to get a community garden going. Here in San Diego, many of the working poor have more than one low paying job just to get by and that does not allow time for planting, weeding, watering, chatting with "neighbors" and all the other things we gardeners enjoy about community gardens. Today, I find that many of the community gardeners that participate in the TiJuana River Valley community garden are retired and live nearby. Some of them once worked as migrant farmers by the way. Most of the gardeners seem to have extended family members to help out as needed - and some of those are little ones who are just learning to grow things they can eat. This year I am encouraging all of the gardeners to plant a little extra that they can share with the local emergency food organizations so those who are too busy to plant can still enjoy the harvest. Michele Delehanty, consultant San Diego Hunger Coalition [EMAIL PROTECTED] 619-427-6527 FAX 619-427-652 >> ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
