Meet Ron Finley, the “Gangsta” Gardener
The Food Revolution Network recently featured gardener and activist, Ron Finley, on it’s website. Ron has changed his community one tiny garden at a time, often bucking the City of Los Angeles to do it.
From their website we read: South Central Los Angeles is notorious for its drive-by shootings, where shooters kill their victims without ever leaving their cars. And it’s also the home of drive-through restaurants where people eat fast food without ever leaving their cars.
Why does Ron Finley, the “gangsta’ gardener,” say that the drive-throughs are killing more people than the drive-bys? Inner city communities often have little or no access to healthy food. As a result, people who live in these “food deserts” have extremely high rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and many other diet-fueled chronic ailments.
But now, here is a bright beacon of hope. Ron Finley feeds the hungry and brings real food to the people that need it most. He grows not just vegetables, but also the very fabric of community itself.