One Mile Meal - Washington DC
Transformer Gallery
August 2nd 2007
Ally Reeves and I recently presented One Mile Meal at Tranformer Gallery in Washington DC as part of the Fereshteh Toosi’s project You’re Not As Green As Cabbage Looking.
On August 2nd we spent 12 hours biking within a one-mile radius of Transformer, in search of food to feed the audience that would assemble at the gallery that evening. DC-ites seemed prepared for a meager meal as they wished us luck on our quest, but by performance time we’d assembled a small feast - including a variety of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, apples, a whole array of herbs and more...
We started off the day by foraging in Woodley Park, in a green swath along Rock Creek that fell just inside the perimeter of our mile. One early discovery of ours, which came as no surprise to the locals – Rock Creek STINKS! We weren’t eager to eat anything found along its smelling banks, but the park offered many edible greens. Good thing Ally knows so much about plant identification!
Then we headed toward the more densely populated parts of our mile to see what folks in the area were growing. We saw herb gardens in several yards and even some potted tomato plans on a porch, but since we were scavenging on a weekday we didn’t have much luck starting up a conversation with the home gardeners of Dupont Circle.
Our first significant lead came when the owner of a health and vitamin shop told us about a community garden located behind the Masonic Temple. We went to inquire and got the added bonus of checking out the inside of the immense and beautiful building, which houses the first public library ever established in the US. Rob, the building’s manager, made a call on our behalf to the president of the community garden association and Carrie happily came right over to meet us.
Carrie said she is an aspiring documentarian herself and had been visiting other community gardens with the goal of making a documentary about urban gardening in DC. She graciously offered us a sampling of the harvest ready veggies and told us stories about the many folks who grow food and decorative plants in the temple garden, including a nine-year-old boy who is growing melons.
According to Carrie, the temple garden is more “boutique-y” than other gardens in the city – meaning the gardeners there seem to have a stronger interest in decoration than some of the more pragmatically food focused gardens. The 7th Street Garden takes a food-first approach and it was within our mile, so Carrie suggested we head in that direction.
Liz met us just as we entered the garden and was happy to tell us about the community food project, which she runs on a volunteer basis. While gardeners at the temple garden pay an annual fee and are assigned their own plot, the 7th Street Garden operates on a different model. Located in a low-income area, the goal is to produce fresh, healthy produce for local residents who have limited access to quality food. Residents can trade work in the garden for a bag of food each week.
Liz said poor nutrition and obesity are major problems in DC’s poor communities, since grocery store chains won’t operate in low-income neighborhoods and community food pantries are often unable to provide fresh food. As the only community food project in DC, The 7th Street Garden gets little support from the city and fears they will soon lose their lot. Property values in their area are going up and the nearby Section 8 housing is slated for demolition and redevelopment. Liz is hesitant to plant fruit trees or make major improvements when the future of the lot is uncertain, but for now she devotes four days a week to the project, in addition to other paid employment. A network of other volunteers work with Liz to keep the garden’s raised beds blossoming with beautiful, natural edibles.
As we wrapped up our conversation with Liz, we headed back to Transformer with bags full of fruit and veggies; a story to tell; and no time to spare. The twelve hours went by fast and it was time for the evenings’ events…
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