Today, First Lady Michelle Obama toured the International Rescue Committee-sponsored New Roots Community Farm in San Diego, a 2.3-acre strip of city-owned land with plots that are tended by members of the local refugee and immigrant communities. One of these farmers, Bilali Muya, is working with the IRC to help his fellow refugees set down new roots in their adopted country:
Imagine being uprooted by war from a rural village in southern Somalia, fleeing to a refugee camp in Kenya and resettling in an urban neighborhood in San Diego. This is the journey of Bilali Muya and his wife, Johora Musa, who arrived in the United States in 2004. The contrast between southern Somalia and Southern California is astonishing, Muya says. “Where I grew up we were farmers. We didn’t worry about putting gas in a car or going to a job, like people do here.”
Like many refugees, Muya missed working his own land and growing crops for food, activities that have sustained generations of Somali Bantu. In San Diego, Muya’s only connection to food was visiting the local grocery store.
With refugees like Muya in mind, the IRC launched an effort to create a community farm in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, home too many refugees and immigrants. It took nearly two years to win the city’s permission, but in September 2009, New Roots Community Farm celebrated its grand opening.
When the IRC broke ground on the 2.3-acre site, it was nothing more than rocks and weeds. Now, 80 refugee families have planted a variety of organic crops, and one gardener has sold his first harvest of kale to a local restaurant. Although the IRC spearheaded the effort, the farm wouldn’t exist without the efforts of the refugee community, says Amy Lint, the IRC’s community development coordinator. “We had been thinking about how to provide more nutritious food to the community but the idea for the farm came from the refugees themselves.”
Imagine being uprooted by war from a rural village in southern Somalia, fleeing to a refugee camp in Kenya and resettling in an urban neighborhood in San Diego. This is the journey of Bilali Muya and his wife, Johora Musa, who arrived in the United States in 2004. The contrast between southern Somalia and Southern California is astonishing, Muya says. “Where I grew up we were farmers. We didn’t worry about putting gas in a car or going to a job, like people do here.”
Like many refugees, Muya missed working his own land and growing crops for food, activities that have sustained generations of Somali Bantu. In San Diego, Muya’s only connection to food was visiting the local grocery store.
With refugees like Muya in mind, the IRC launched an effort to create a community farm in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, home too many refugees and immigrants. It took nearly two years to win the city’s permission, but in September 2009, New Roots Community Farm celebrated its grand opening.
When the IRC broke ground on the 2.3-acre site, it was nothing more than rocks and weeds. Now, 80 refugee families have planted a variety of organic crops, and one gardener has sold his first harvest of kale to a local restaurant. Although the IRC spearheaded the effort, the farm wouldn’t exist without the efforts of the refugee community, says Amy Lint, the IRC’s community development coordinator. “We had been thinking about how to provide more nutritious food to the community but the idea for the farm came from the refugees themselves.”
