Community creates vegetable garden in a food desert

A group in East Tampa has set up a vegetable garden to combat high food prices, but are also discovering other benefits to growing your own food.

Words:

• Fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, and other plants you can eat are also referred to as fresh produce.
• A grassroots movement is a group of citizens who work together to achieve something without help from a company or the government.
• When you feel empowered, you feel stronger and more confident because of something that happened or something you learned.
• Grant money is money from the government that helps fund initiatives or projects. 

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0NpKsAI-c

Watch the video until 01:16.

1. What is a food desert?

A. A very dry area where it’s very difficult to grow fresh fruit and vegetables. 

B. An area where the people earn low wages and it’s hard to find fresh fruit and vegetables.

C. An area where people have very unhealthy diets and don’t eat fruit and vegetables.

D. An area where people aren’t educated about gardening and growing their own food.

2. The first person who is interviewed says that the gardens they’re growing are about ‘surviving’. Why does she say that?

3. The narrator uses the word ‘contagious’ to describe the founder, Kitty Wallace. Why does he use this word?

A. Because the size of the garden is growing very quickly.

B. Because her enthusiasm for gardening has spread to other people.

C. Because her approach to gardening creates a healthier lifestyle for people.

D. Because everyone likes her so much. 

Watch the video from 01:16 until the end.

4. Regina shows some of the produce she has grown in her garden. Name at least one thing she grows.

5. Joy Watkins mentions some of the benefits of the gardens. Which benefits does she mention? Choose the correct answers.

A. The community can share the food that they grow.

B. Gardening keeps her active, which is good for her health.

C. She doesn’t have to buy fruit and vegetables from the shop as often.

D. She feels more confident about taking care of her own health.

E. She has gained a lot of knowledge about plants.

F. She has lost weight by eating from her own garden.

G: She doesn’t have to take as much medication for her blood pressure.

6. Think about your own situation. How easy is it for you to buy fresh fruit and vegetables? How easy is it for you to buy unhealthy foods, such as fast food, snacks, or sugary drinks? Do you think you live in an environment that makes it easy to be healthy?

Van de makers van All Right!, Of Course! en Taalblokken Engels