Edible Dallas & Fort Worth Spring 2022

EDIBLE COMMUNITY

“ It’s a great expe- rience to watch the vegetables you see in the store come out of the ground from our hard work and know that we’re helping rebuild our community closer to how my granny saw it.” — Charles Bryant

GroZilla at Fair P ark

Tito’s philanthropic arm not only embraced them with financial support but sponsored a fundraising brunch with Netafim, a lead- er in farm irrigation technology; Whole Foods Market; SMU; GreenMountain Energy; Toyota USA; and Kosmos Energy, which helped fund a pilot CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program for its own employees. The CSA, where farmers from the area aggregate their goods to provide weekly boxes of food directly to the public for a fee, is the first example of how all the components of the agrisystem can func- tion together. “What a wonderful asset to our city to help increase the access to fresh food and to create new job opportunities,” said Dallas cookbook au- thor Alex Snodgrass after hosting the bruncheon inNovember. Restorative Farms has also built a buzz with like-minded, can-do nonprofit organizations including 4DWN Project, who run a safe,

inclusive skatepark and help build GroBoxes, and Harvest Project and Oak Cliff Veggie Project, both of which redistribute food des- tined for the landfill in addition to educating people about nutrition. Day’s vision is to create a local food hub like the one that used to exist. “It’s not going to happen overnight. Probably closer to 10 years until people really latch on and understand they’re living in a food desert and can gain the knowledge and infrastructure to eat healthier again. “I’m from right here and I want to stay here until it’s done. I want to create the ambition to get our community back to the home remedy of growing your own food,” Day says as he prepares to pull the cover crops that were sown for the overwinter months. “It’s a great experience to watch the vegetables you see in the store come out of the ground from our hard work and know that we’re helping rebuild our community closer to how my granny saw it,” adds Bryant.

18 | EDIBLE DALLAS & FORT WORTH SPRING 2022