Just three grocery stores serve DC’s Wards 7 and 8; only one of those is in Ward 8, home to 80,000 people. Fast food restaurants and convenience stores often fill the food source void.
This is something that Building Bridges Across the River/THEARC is trying to change, through its network of urban garden plots in that part of the city, including a one-acre farm at THEARC. These farms help support a Community Sponsored Agriculture program, or CSA, sponsored by BBAR.
Chris Smith, WC Smith’s chairman and CEO, co-founded BBAR in 1997, and the organization is WC Smith’s primary nonprofit partner.
BBAR’s CSA now counts 400 subscribers. The food grown at the farms is supplemented by produce grown at 50 area farms, most of which are Black-owned. Low-income residents received a reduced-rate subscription, while families on assistance receive the food free of charge.
To learn more about BBAR’s urban farm network, check out this article published in October by the Washington Post. You can also visit BBAR’s website for more information.
