JACKSON, Mich. — The Jackson City Council passed an ordinance earlier this month making it easier for community groups and nonprofits in the city to create community gardens.
Public Information Officer Aaron Dimick said this ordinance can give more to organizations that provide fresh food for the community.
“We hear a lot from our residents that there is trouble for a lot of our residents getting access to fresh food, because of the very low number of grocery stores in the city limits,” he said.
That is echoed by Young People of Purpose Founder and CEO Diane Washington. She operates a community garden on Jackson’s south side where she grows tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, strawberries and other fruit.
“I live in Ward 1, and I’m there because I want to be,” she said. “I want to be an asset to make our community and our city better. But it is not an area that we have things that our community needs like grocery stores and just all kinds of things that our community is lacking. We don’t have the resources, the types of foods that we need, the healthy nutritional foods that our community needs.”
Washington was instrumental in getting the ordinance passed working with city officials to explain why the ordinance would benefit her organization and the community.
“It will benefit us to be able to expand what we already do or expand delivery to the community to get more food to more people,” she said. “It will also extend our growing season to be able to grow more in a longer season and produce more.”
The ordinance creates guidelines for nonprofits and community groups to have a community garden on a residential lot or a vacant city lot and outlines things such as how big it can be and how it can operate.
“Another element is we have a lot of vacant city owned lots, so if there was an organization that wanted to use one of those lots they could always reach out to the city and see if that’s an appropriate place for a garden,” Dimick said. “But, it’s not specifically designed for vacant city lots. It’s more like already previously owned property that people might have.”
Dimick said if you want to just have a garden in your yard, this ordinance doesn’t impact your ability to do that.
“This is a for a group that wants a larger scale garden to produce more food. It just kind of sets the specifications for garden, allows them to have different structures like a greenhouse or a bigger garden,” he said.
The ordinance does not allow to use community gardens as a commercial enterprise. It goes into effect May 5.
“We invite anyone who is thinking about undertaking one of these community gardens to reach out to our Department of Neighborhood and Economic Operations and you can get started with the permitting process,” Dimick said.
Click here to read about the community garden ordinance.
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