Salud Hero of the Week: Professor Helps Start Garden of ‘Health and Hope’ in Brownsville, Texas

Share On Social!

Editor’s Note: Salud Heroes are a weekly feature from the Salud America! Growing Healthy Change website, which aims to empower healthy changes in Latino communities through news, resources, and stories.

Dr. Belinda Reininger, assistant professor at the UT School of Public Health and head of the Brownsville Farmers’ Market, helped launch the Brownsville Wellness Coalition to promote both physical activity and healthy food choices.

They learned many local farmers were getting close to retiring, and there were few young farmers in line to keep the crops coming.

To teach the community how to grow fresh produce, they decided to push for a community garden, a shared space within a community where neighbors can grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables.

They targeted a tragedy-ridden, city-owned tract of land behind an infamous downtown apartment building, which had sat in limbo for years after a triple homicide involving children took place on the property. One way to heal and promote togetherness in that area, the coalition thought, was to plant the new community garden in the free space behind the building.

So they worked with the city and, in July 2013, the garden, called Tres Angeles in remembrance of the three children killed in the area, officially opened.

With 26 plots available, families can buy a plot in the garden for $15 a year.

The money goes to the community garden group, and the members of the community decide how to spend the money collected, be it on new gardening tools, events in the garden, or new plants.

Read the full story here or watch the video.

Find resources to start a change like this in your area.

)