THE GARDENS

Sounding the “trumpet of change," The Elephant Gardens has been at the forefront of our community in dealing with the full range of issues surrounding food: Food Access, Food Security, Food Apartheid (AKA Food Deserts), Food Justice, and Food Sovereignty. We have always believed that Agriculture, coupled with a little imagination and the will to transform our communities, could be used as a “panacea” to solve all the food issues that have plagued our community for over 30 years, progressively worsening with each passing year! In fact, according to the Indianapolis City-County General Ordinance #337, there has been a “longstanding disinvestment” in “farms owned by Black people” and “inadequate investment in urban farms and gardens” that has hindered “local production of fruits and vegetables and workforce development opportunities,” which has resulted in “numerous and significant barriers to accessing healthy food in low-income communities, particularly in communities with significant Black, minority, and immigrant populations,” and therefore, a “continued prevalence” of “diet-preventable chronic diseases” exists.

The Elephant Gardens will continue to work and to reshape this narrative, one garden row at a time!