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In 2015, only 52 percent of Atlanta residents lived within a half mile of fresh produce. By 2020, this number shot to 75 percent thanks to efforts throughout metro Atlanta. But this wasn’t done by simply requiring existing stores to carry fruits and vegetables or even by opening new ones.
While major changes to the food supply chain happen from the top down, they alone aren’t enough to effectuate the real change Atlanta may need: more people eating fresh produce. For every major ordinance passed, there has to be a systemic shift in food demand to make use of it.
At Stone Mountain Community Garden, you see that shift happen in those small moments like a kid trying a raw green bean, or a parent humoring their child only to find out they like it too. They have to happen again and again to produce significant demand, then dollars—and it’s folks like Columbus Brown who make that happen.
Not only does this raise a generation with a produce-craving palate that will then demand more, but these same children become vectors to rectify the issues their parents experienced from just not having access.
Over coffee and under the rain, Brown credits Michelle Obama’s healthy eating initiatives for much of the demand he has seen thus far. The butterfly and children’s gardens at Stone Mountain Community Garden may be small measures by comparison, though he sees any opportunities to connect kids to fresh food as a win.
“We have to encourage people to expand their palates,” Brown says.
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