The Danny Woo Garden-Mercedes

The goal of the garden was simple, design and construct for the Asian elderly living in Seattle a place to plant the foods they missed from their native countries, and, most importantly, to provide social connections, recreation and exercise for the aging immigrant residents. (InterIm CDA). But back in 1975, resources to fulfill this dream were scarce. Activists and organizations asked Danny Woo, a community landowner and leader at the time, to build a garden on his Seattle property in the International District. “Uncle” Bob Santos, leader of InterIm CDA at the time proposed a new initiative. By combining a city-owned park with Danny Woo’s property, there would be enough land for the elders to harvest their produce, yet without being overcrowded. InterIm CDA, a nonprofit organization could only afford on $1 a year for rent. Despite this very low amount of money, Danny Woo agreed, and thus the Danny Woo Gardens was constructed

The garden was built on generosity and kindness, and continues to thrive today on the generosity of a community, full of volunteers and willing benefactors. InterIM CDA holds numerous benefit social events throughout the year all to benefit their projects, with the goal of benefitting an entire community. One of these longstanding events is the Sumer Pig Roast.

Let me take you back to history through my eyes now. I’m 18, going on 19 this year and my family has deep roots in Seattle, I am a fourth generation Seatillite, born and raised. And let me tell you, there is nothing like Seattle in the summertime. Those 8 out of 12 months filled with cold, rain, sleet, hail, sun breaks, heavy downpour, spontaneous storms, and generally unpredictable weather that people complain about are worth it for the summers spent in the city. Seattle becomes alive with the sun, and there are countless events that take place all around the Puget Sound. My favorite week of the whole summer is the second week of July. Not only is it my birthday weekend, but it is also the time of year when the annual InterIm Pig Roast happens, as well as numerous other Asian-culture events. The Pig Roast is an annual event that I have been attending since I was just a year old, and my father had been attending every year since it’s creation in the 70’s. I haven’t missed a single pig roast, save for the year I was born.

This longstanding event of the Pig Roast involves roasting a pig on a spit roast for over 30 hours, constantly being rotated and checked for even cooking. Those who participate in the roasting of the pig all agree that there’s a specific art and science to roasting a pig, one has to make sure that it is evenly cooked, that it’s not cooking too fast, etc. After the pig has been roasted to perfection, it is cut and served along with other donated dishes as a community potluck for all to attend. This annual event feeds hundreds of people, and is a chance for everyone to reconnect with the community, view the hard work that the elderly put into the gardens, and carry on a tradition.

Over the years, the Danny Woo garden has seen many additions, new retaining walls, planting of large fruit trees, and are currently in the process of building a chicken coop for both the elderly and the young to tend to. I even adopted a chicken to donate to the coop. Any ideas on names? :)

Community Gardens

Environmental racism. What does this mean to you?

One definition is: Environmental racism relates to an enforcement of a policy, practice, or regulation that negatively affects the environment of low-income and radically- homogeneous communities at a disparate rate than affluent communities.

When I think about this it brings me back to the movie we saw a few weeks ago, The Garden. This was a documentary about the South Central Farmers in Los Angeles, a group of farmers coming together, fighting to keep their 14-acre community garden. This community formed a special bond as they grew vegetables, plants, and fruits to help support their families. The movie portrays the plight of the farmers as they fight to keep from being evicted, but as all things must come to an end, sadly this was one of them, torn apart and ripped down to the last piece of grass... left only was a pile of torn greens and a whole bunch of wasted dirt land.

As I watched the film, there are many heartwrenching moments that almost brought me to tears, as basically one man, the man who owns the land, the one who has the power to sell or even give the land to the farmers, outright denies them this property. Even when the farmers raise enough money to buy the land from him, he still refuses. The injustice and corruption in the documentary made me livid.

Does this injustice still exist? As we look around in our community, we will see gardens such as the Danny Woo International District garden, the P-Patch Community Gardens, the UFarm at the University of Washington, but are all these gardens serving the same purpose? And do they all benefit low-income residents?

The P-Patch Community Gardens

There are so far a total of 68 of these gardens provided for residents in Seattle. The gardens are provided by the Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Program together with the P-Patch Trust with an emphasis on immigrant and low-income populations and youth. 23 acres of land serve more than 3800 urban gardeners.

The P-Patch Program works to improve their communities food security, defined as, "when all community members obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice."

This is probably the same concept the South Central Farmers believed in, but their community garden was destroyed. Luckily, in Seattle, the P-Patch Community Gardens are still thriving and hopefully, they will never face the same injustice as the South Central Farmers.

The Danny Woo Garden

This garden is in Chinatown/International District. This is a place where families get together to build communities that learn from one another and build strong connections so the garden can succeed. There are volunteers, gardeners, activists, organizations, etc. that help to keep the garden alive and green year round. Due to its success the garden has thrived since its first days in 1975 when a member of the Woo family leased the land to InterIm Cda. The heritage is from the Eastern part of the continent: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Pacific Islander.

In the garden people like to grow vegetables, flowers, fruits, plants, etc. Since tourists and visitors love to look at nature's beauty, they often come and walk down the many trails that display the many crops. There are also picnic benches and public art for people to take advantage of whenever they want to take the family for a nice day out. The elderly and more experienced gardeners grow vegetables that they would have grown if they were still back in their home country (watercress, daikon, and bok choy), while the younger kids stick to planting sweet fruits (strawberries and plums).

The UFarm

The farm at U.W. was started with the goal of, "educating the U.W. community about the global impacts of our food choices." It also, "serves as a tool to connect the U.W. community with where and how food is grown." Isn't this awesome? Now, at our very own fingertips, as students, we can be involved! Here is a great opportunity to learn how to farm!

Although the farm at UW isn't necessarily facing any environmental racism, I still think it is a great tool for students to learn more about farming, which will allow us to perhaps connect more with what the South Central Farmers were doing.

Now, it's not all doom and gloom, I have something to look forward to, ever since I heard about the UFarm, the Danny Woo garden, and the P-Patch Community, all in Seattle, YES SEATTLE, I have high hopes for more and bigger gardens to open up within the communities, not just ours, but maybe ones in other states , let's all go GREEN!

-Hien & Alaa

Sources:
http://www.interimicda.org/index.php?/sustainable_communities/danny_woo_garden/

http://students.washington.edu/uwfarm/
http://www.cityofseattle.net/neighborhoods/ppatch/communityfoodsecurity.htm