San Diego Community Farm Helps Immigrants Feel at Home

Mue Mue (right) and her husband Nyan Tint, refugees from Burma, show off their garden to visitors. (Gisela Sommer / The Epoch Times)

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—What once was a vacant lot in a barren neighborhood in the City Heights section of San Diego has been transformed into a thriving community farm that promotes sustainable agriculture and helps the many refugees from all over the world who have been settled here to find friendship and common purpose.

The “New Roots” Community Farm near 54th Avenue & Chollas Parkway, developed by the refugee aid group, The International Rescue Committee (IRC), celebrated its official opening day on Thursday, September 10 and invited the community to meet the farmers and the IRC aid workers who made it happen.

According to a statement by the IRC, the eighty families who till the land are from all over the world: Cambodia, Somalia, Burma, Uganda, Congo, Kenya, Mexico and Guatemala. Here, the farmers cultivate not just corn, tomatoes and eggplant, but also a deeper understanding of their neighbors’ cultures.  

“Now the Somali Bantu are talking to the Mexicans and the Mexicans are talking to the Cambodians,” said Amy Lint, IRC-San Diego’s Community Development Coordinator, who spent the last two years working to get the farm project off the ground. “They are finding they have a lot in common, a lot to share on the topic of food.”

Lint said where refugees and immigrants once may have felt isolated, the farm gives them a chance to make new ties and set down new roots here in the US. One New Roots farmer is selling produce to a local restaurant and others hope to soon sell their vegetables at the local farmers market, providing a new source of income for their families. In addition, many of the refugees who farm the land here were skilled farmers in their native countries. New Roots provides the opportunity to farm again.

‘Having This Garden is Good for My Family’

Several dozen people from the community came to the opening event. Everyone seemed to enjoy walking through the fields, talking with the farmers, marveling at their crops, inspired by their hard work and happy smiles.

Machandra, a refugee from Cambodia, has been in San Diego since 15 years. She grows cucumbers, watermelons, corn and lettuce for her family’s consumption. She said she’s had her garden for three months now, and she likes it very much. She said she comes to the garden every day.

Mue Mue said it is difficult for them to get a job. She and her husband do not have a job yet, but they hope that once they can speak English well they will be able to get jobs. Right now they go to school to learn English, she said.

Mue Mue said they came here because of civil war in their country; they had a lot of problems, no food and civil war every day.

She said she feels very good about having a garden. “In my country we had a big farm,” Mue Mue said.

They are growing pumpkins, cauliflower, cucumbers, beans and onions for their own use. “Having this garden is good for my family,” she said.

A Place to Build Friendships and Work as a Community

Many people stepped up to the microphone on a small makeshift stage to give heartfelt thank-you speeches and to share how the farm came about. A group of women farmers from Somalia performed a line dance to the drum beat of two plastic bowls. There was also a potluck which included vegetables from the farm.

Helen Jennings, a resident who lives across the street from the New Roots Community Farm, said she has lived here since 1989 and she often wondered whether something was going to be done with this field. When she found out that a community garden was going to be built here she became very, very excited. She thought everyone has done a marvelous job, and she also likes that the children can come and be part of it. She said she watches the children who come to work here every day, and she is very impressed by that.

Jennings said, “The garden serves many purposes: a reason for living, a way to supplement their diets with fresh vegetables, a place to build friendship, and a place to learn, grow, and work as a community.”

Making an Investment in the Community Supporting Immigrants and Refugees

Bob Montgomery, Executive Director of IRC said that although IRC was the main initiator of the community farm, there were many, many people that were necessary to make this garden happen. He said it was a long, almost 3 year, process that was often expensive and that many times he almost lost hope that they would get to where they are today.

“Literally two to three months ago there was nothing here and now look at it! Amazing!” he said.

Montgomery continued that he was heartened to hear from city officials that they are now committed to make this process easier. “Because there is no reason that we can’t have more of these gardens throughout City Heights and the City of San Diego, he said.

He also thanked the people in the community who supported this farm and who’ve been welcoming refugees for over 30 years.

Montgomery closed by saying, “We wanted to make an investment in this community, and we felt this was a helpful and respectful way to thank the community of City Heights for supporting immigrants and refugees in their community. And looking around me today, I know we did the right thing.”