“We use the term “Food Apartheid” because using the term “food desert” suggests that it’s somehow a natural occurrence to be far away from resources. But it is not. It is a choice to not provide full-service grocery stores to all people in our community. There could be a closer grocery store. But it is a collective societal decision to deny a basic source of health and well-being for our community.

We look at it as a holistic situation. If you don’t have healthy food, not only do your healthcare costs go up, but your ability to hold down a job, to keep your housing, to do well in school, to care for your family: this all becomes much more problematic. So we want to help people access fresh food by learning how to grow it themselves and by giving away what we grow. We’re getting people excited about learning and understanding how they fit into the natural world – as well as helping them directly access a basic human right.

We know in the coming years our social safety net will get even thinner, and we will have even more people who need our services. As a nonprofit, we operate on a thin margin of funding with very little reserve. This year we had a large grant application turned down unexpectedly. Subsequently, it’s unclear during this upcoming year how we’ll balance our budget. Cutting programming may be necessary. But we keep going, we keep serving the community’s needs, and we do the best we can with what we have.”

Shelly Casto is the Executive Director of the Highland Youth Garden, which offers a diverse, hands-on learning environment for children in the Hilltop neighborhood, giving them the space and guidance to grow their own food and explore nature.