Growing Food with Heart
The Heart & Soil People’s Garden is a women-led urban farm on a neighborhood corner in South Phoenix that is growing over 14,000 pounds of fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables for local families.
Garden Director Chanika Forté hosts open-air markets, children’s activities and home-gardening workshops through a collaboration with Local First Arizona and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Farming from generation to generation
Forté is proud of her heritage as a seventh-generation farmer and one of only two Black beekeepers in Arizona, until she began teaching a new generation of female hive caretakers, known as the Baehive.
Forté is part of a movement to replace food deserts with thriving urban farms and “people’s gardens” on previously vacant or underutilized land. The plot where the garden sits was donated by Community Tire Pros & Auto Repair.
Urban farms fill food deserts
The USDA has designated Heart & Soil People’s Garden an example of urban farming that should be replicated throughout the Valley, as well as the nation. An event will be held at the garden March 21 to mark its USDA designation.
Experts warn farmland is disappearing in Maricopa County faster than anywhere else in the country, threatening the local food supply.
Urban farmers like Forté are training others to strengthen their food independence by nurturing healthy gardens and honey right in their own backyards.
