Growing Home in Philadelphia
"A man and his wife rifle though tomato bushes growing in a wooden garden bed in the Point Breeze neighborhood in South Philly. All around them, dozens of other raised beds are exploding with green growth.
The one-block, 2.8-acre lot is surrounded by familiar Philadelphia blight: run-down houses, unkempt weeds, a pile of soiled mattresses. But flourishing within the fenced property are symbols of life, growth, and revitalization.
“Every day I come to see the garden,” says Moti, a 36-year-old Bhutanese man who spent 20 years living in a refugee camp in Nepal before he arrived in the United States as part of a resettlement program in 2012. “I grow green pepper, tomatoes, lady finger [okra], cucumber, and corn here.”... The garden was organized by Nationalities Services Center (NSC), one of several organizations that helps to settle refugees in Philadelphia, to provide new residents a space to grow their own food and strengthen their communities. “I know this, how to grow this,” Moti says of his crops, noting that his family uses the produce to make their native food like soups and potato or rice dishes."
Read the full story by Aaron Kase here.
