During my first year in the SPA Leadership Program, I worked in a group with 5 other people to develop a social action project focused on economic inequality. Specifically, we researched food deserts within the wards of DC. After finding that there was a significant lack of access to food we decided to partner with a community garden.

We organized a gardening day called “Planting for Progress” at DC Urban Greens. We created posters and laptop stickers to advertize our event, and then we brought a group of students to the garden on a Saturday. We started the day by giving a presentation to inform our participants about our research, the significance of the issue, and the garden we were going to. Then, we travelled there and got to work. We pulled weeds, layed down wood chips, and watered the plants.

There is still a lot more work to be done with the issue of economic inequaltiy and lack of food access, but I feel much more aware and sensitive to the issue. The gardening day was only a small dent, but I know that even for one day we helped to serve the community with fresh food