Narrator

Far from the farm fields of rural America, an agrarian revolution is
taking place. This is the Dudley Street neighborhood of inner city
Boston. It's a diverse, populated community with a vibrant street life.
It's also home to the Food Project, a community based organization
funded in part by CSREES.

Pat Gray -- The Food Project

*When we started, it was 24 young people from city and suburb. We worked
on 2 and a half acres. We grew about 24,000 pounds of food.*

Narrator

Today, the Food Project produces a quarter of a million pounds of food
annually, 10 times greater than its first harvest in 1992. It has a full
time staff of 25, offers paying jobs to hundreds of students and
receives help from nearly 2000 volunteers. Their success is due in part
to their strong connection with the local community.

Pat Gray

*We hear this from the neighbors, a sense of pride that their young
people are doing something that is useful. They're working hard.*

Danielle Andrews -- The Food Project

*A few years ago, the neighbors spoke to me about having more flowers on
the land. That's something that we've tried to respond to. Keeping their
concerns in mind is one of the issues that I think is part of urban
agriculture.*

Narrator

Danielle Andrews has been with the Food Project for 5 years. She
understands the special challenges of food production in the city.

Danielle Andrews

*This is our rooftop garden. It's located at the Boston Medical Center.
We got involved in this garden as a result of our effort to find more
land in the city to grow food on.*

*All of the land that we grow on in the city with the exception of the
rooftop garden had issues with lead in the soil. The lead got there from
houses were on the land that burned down in the 60's & 70s.*

Pat Gray

*The land that we are currently growing on were vacant lots that were
overgrown, in many cases they were dangerous. There were drugs etc.*

Narrator

It is in abandoned city lots like this that the Food Project staked its
claim. The first step was to clear the land of abandoned cars, old tires
and toxic trash. Then, the hard work followed.

Danielle Andrews

*We knew that lead in the soil was really dangerous to be growing food
in, particularly leafy greens that absorb a lot of lead. So we decided
to respond by bringing in clean soil, so we built up our fields by about
two feet above the lead contaminated soil.*

Narrator

But the Food Project contributes to the community in other significant
ways. It is teaching local youth the fundamentals of food production
through a thriving salsa business. All ingredients come from Food
Project gardens. Students also learn culinary arts at the facility. And
twice a week throughout the growing season, it's harvest time.

Danielle Andrews

*We'll probably be harvesting in between 400-500 pounds this morning. We
have a lot of things to bring in this morning. We have our peppers and
tomatoes and eggplant are just starting to come on in a big way so we're
going to be harvesting that - a lot of greens, a lot of summer squash.*

Narrator

It is now three o'clock. The red tents at the busy intersection at
Dudley Commons signal that it's market day. And the Food Project workers
are ready to serve their customers.

Pat Gray

*They come because they need a job. It's a combination of the real work
of growing food- learning through workshops etc-and personal reflection.
And the education that we do is intentionally tied to what they have to
know to succeed in their job.*

*For the young people who may not have had the kind of support at home
that they would like to. For them to nurture plants, take care of
plants. They then can transfer some of that to themselves. It's very
deep work what we do beyond growing the vegetables.*

*There is something healing about being on a piece of land that's
peaceful and quiet and safe.*