Camden's surge in community gardening

The Camden story is all too familiar. More often than not, it's about poverty, corruption, and violence.

But here's a new, uplifting chapter for that distressing book: Community gardens have more than doubled in Camden - to 80-plus - over the last two years, making this 10-square-mile city a leader in food production locally and, possibly, beyond.

The city's surprising green surge also provides residents with much-needed fresh food, which itself is a tool for fighting one of Camden's most intractable health problems - child obesity.

"By all accounts, nothing works in Camden, but this really seems to work for the people there," says Domenic Vitiello, assistant professor of city planning at the University of Pennsylvania, who has studied community gardens and their impact in Philadelphia, Trenton, and, most recently, Camden.

"Over the last two years," he says, "Camden residents have expanded community gardening at a rate that outpaces most, perhaps all, U.S. cities."

The reasons aren't complicated; on the drawing board, these things rarely are. All it takes are committed people, the right programs, and money.

Still, even those who have made it happen seem a little surprised at Camden's success at community gardening. "It's pretty amazing," says the Rev. Earnell Steed Jr., pastor of the Genesis New Beginning in Christ Church on Liberty Street.

In 2008, he and his parishioners planted a robust vegetable garden next to the church, on seven vacant lots covering more than an acre and owned by the city. (Speaking of chapters in the book of Camden, the site used to have a paper factory on it.)

"Before we put in the garden, the block looked like a war zone," says Steed, who worked as a heavy-equipment operator before joining the ministry.

Although he is new to gardening, Steed now sees the spiritual value of growing food as well as its health, social, and financial benefits. "It falls right in line with our mission," he says, "which centers on evangelism, education, and economic empowerment."

It also feeds neighbors, parishioners, children at a nearby day-care center, and local firefighters.

The church got permission to use the old factory site free through Camden's Adopt-a-Lot program, which is one reason community gardens are growing so fast here. In Philadelphia, the permission process can be daunting; in Camden, it takes a mere six weeks.