While gardening has long been a common hobby, urban agriculture has become an increasingly popular trend in Washington, D.C. 

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     In recent years, nonprofit organizations and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office have pushed for more urban agriculture in an effort to decrease food deserts. 

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     According to the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas, urban census tracts with a poverty rate of at least 20%, where at least a third of the population lives over a mile from the nearest supermarket, are classified as food deserts. 

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     In the district, that means that Wards 7 and 8 are home to the most food deserts, particularly east of the Anacostia River.

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     To increase food access in these areas, Mayor Bowser’s D.C. Food Policy Council has turned their attention toward funding community gardens and farms. 

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     “​​For the last few years, we have been able to really be funding some physical infrastructure at our urban farms, so it’s covered things like, of course, extending seasons through hoop houses, some transportation infrastructure and refrigeration,” said Caroline Howe, the food policy director at the D.C. Food Policy Council.

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     Through the Urban Agriculture Infrastructure grants, the D.C. Department of Energy and the Environment provides funds to increase urban agriculture in Washington. This year alone, seven grant recipients received a total of just over $100,000.

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     For Dreaming Out Loud, a nonprofit organization with community gardens and a communal farm at Kelly Miller Middle School, refrigeration and cold storage have been major challenges.

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     “We are growing. We are bringing more farmers into our network, which means more produce; more produce means we need more storage, and that's such a huge challenge because we've almost run out. We're actually out.” said Sherita Brace, Dreaming Out Loud’s farm director.

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     Last year, Nourish DC, a collaborative providing aid to tackle food insecurity, started the first grant program to help with cold storage infrastructure to address this challenge. 

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     While most think of community gardens with raised beds when talking about urban agriculture, there has been a push for more communal urban farms in recent years.

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     According to Howe, the Department of Parks and Recreation has shifted its focus toward communal farms due to the benefits of cultivating for the collective benefit rather than the more individualistic approach of a typical community garden. 

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     “As a communal farm, they're able to really produce much more produce than you can in lots of individual gardens,” she said.

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     The Farm at Kelly Miller and the community gardens that Dreaming Out Loud has cultivated show two styles of urban agriculture: one primarily cared for by owners of raised beds and the other by a group of farmers who give the food to be distributed.

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     Steven Forthe is one of four farmers who manage The Farm at Kelly Miller, managing the cultivation of healthy food. 

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     “So pretty much the whole setup from seedling to harvest, and then once we harvest, they go to our food hub. And the food hub distributes it from there,” Forthe said. 

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     Dreaming Out Loud, like many other urban farms, works with farmers to grow the produce and then distributes it to Kelly Miller Middle School, ensuring that children in food deserts have access to fresh food. 

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     The Farm also distributes its harvest through Community Supported Agriculture markets and online delivery orders for community members who cannot go to these markets but still need access to fresh produce.

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     “So it feeds the community, educates the community, it creates networking opportunities, and just creates a feeling of belonging and togetherness,” Brace said.

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     But, the benefits of urban agriculture go beyond increasing healthy food access. From incentivizing community gardens in affordable housing units to lowering stormwater runoff in high flood-risk areas to the health benefits, urban agriculture is a solution to many issues. 

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     Mamiko Vuillemin, the food policy analyst at the D.C. Food Policy Council, views the city’s food access aspirations as an opportunity to address multiple issues impacting marginalized people.

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     “The District has set a goal of adding an additional 20 acres of urban cultivation, and when you look at the land use, it's obvious that we don't have a ton of land, and there are housing issues and challenges of folks being displaced and a lack of affordable housing in general in the district,” Vuillemin said.“There is a ton of benefit to intentionally bringing the urban agriculture growing spaces into the affordable housing units and public housing.”

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     Food deserts, particularly those located near the Anacostia River, are also considered the most high flood-risk areas in all of Washington, and urban agriculture has helped decrease stormwater runoff. 

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     Since 2008, RiverSmart Homes, a program run by the D.C. Department of Energy and the Environment, has implemented various green features in an effort to decrease stormwater runoff, including over 1,500 rain gardens. 

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     According to Howe, through this funding and installation aid, people are able to overcome the barriers of starting their own gardens at home. 

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     “The district pays grants, contractors, funding to be able to help build rain gardens in people’s gardens in these high flood-risk areas of the city, having people actually turn their yards into rain gardens,” she said.

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     Howe also emphasized that access to fresh produce has shown improvement in health outcomes.

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     “So we know, for example, that getting people more access to affordable, healthy fresh produce really cuts down on the cost of health care and all of the other indirect costs of the health impacts of inequitable food distribution,” she said.

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     Despite all of the good urban agriculture has done for marginalized communities in Washington, a history of systemic racism still haunts the city. 

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     “The challenges of tackling food access is that essentially we are working in a context of decades, centuries of systemic racism and systemic discrimination that have led to a system that has really unequal distribution to environmental benefits and environmental harms,” Howe said. “Until we see equity in these other areas, we can't get to true food equity.”