In five vacant lots across the city of Cleveland, things are growing.  Not just fruits and vegetables, although there are plenty of those, but also the knowledge and experience of the high school students who tend the gardens.  Employed by the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps program, these students plant, weed, water and harvest in the gardens while learning about agriculture.

    You could call Kwodwo Ababio a lot of things: friendly, a great cook, active in the local food movement, passionate about the future of Linden.  Just don’t call him a community activist.  “I’m not a community activist, I’m just active in my community,” Ababio stressed during a meeting at New Harvest Café.  “I’m an artist, and the community is my canvas.”

Braddock Farms, one of the largest projects run by the non-profit Grow Pittsburgh, is a farm run on a stretch of vacant lots on one of the main streets of the suburb of Braddock.  It sits in the shadow of the last steel mill in Braddock, a town that has lost 90% of its income and population. The area is dotted with overgrown vacant lots, and the mayor, an enthusiastic supporter of the local food movement, hopes to turn them into useful growing spaces.  The existing farm is now in its second full growing season.

Ross, the other interns and I spent some time brainstorming our ideas for the stories we want to tell.  We’re aiming for about ten in the next seven and a half weeks.  Please give us some feedback about which ideas you think are best, which stories you think people need to hear, etc.  These are our ideas so far: