While Gov. Jay Inslee says Washington’s food supply chain is sound, many local gardeners are echoing a broader national desire to be proactive during the coronavirus crisis.
“One of the positive spins of COVID-19 is the response from the community, and the need for folks to get out there and garden,” says Kenya Fredie, program supervisor of all 90 P-Patch community gardens in Seattle. “[P-Patches] are unique ways to grow your own food during these economically uncertain times. We can be social with the distancing, getting people out of isolation and into the sunshine, getting their hands in the soil.”
Dr. Meade Krosby, senior scientist at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, says once the coronavirus pandemic shuttled everyone indoors, she found room among her ornamental, drought-tolerant, wildlife-conscious plants for food plants. She’s starting with a 5-by-7.5-foot plot in her backyard.
As the daughter of a World War II history professor and granddaughter of Norwegians who kept a garden during that war, she acknowledges the war analogy isn’t perfect for our current situation. But the ideals of self-sufficiency and community speak to her now. If finding fresh foods becomes challenging, she wants to take some burden off the food system and help people with less privilege maintain access to healthy options.
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