#Cascadea food crack

“I feel like we are spiritually rehabbing the physical land of this neighborhood.” “Reclamation is such a spiritual process,” she said. Vild’s passion is evident as she speaks of the forest’s design - intricate layers of browns and greens form multiple “mountain” beds with swales, separated by mulched pathways, to transform a neglected urban park into a place to feast.

#Cascadea food crack

From the forming of our city from redline districting, to suburbanization that caused Route 59 to tear down the largest black business district in the city, the largest red line district area to grow housing, which became the ground zero of the crack epidemic.” “This is a neighborhood that has faced systemic racism from the get-go. “Sustainability is reparations,” she said.

While a food forest aims to provide sustainable nourishment and improve health for residents, the Elizabeth Park forest is about more than that, Vild said. Once the Elizabeth Park forest matures, all that will be required of the neighborhood, which spreads out in the shadow of Akron’s Y Bridge, will be harvesting, weeding and path maintenance.

Per the residents’ wishes, that forest will be built as a mental health oasis while alleviating a food desert and addressing health disparities, she said. Under Vild’s direction, a second food forest is planned for Boss Park across town in University Park, near the University of Akron. It is planned to offer plants for eating and others for healing, with enough vegetation installed for both humans and wildlife to consume, said Beth Vild, an urban-designer and community organizer, who’s leading the charge in the design, site preparation and planting of both forests. The Elizabeth Park food forest is related to that work, but a separate initiative with many collaborators. The parks challenge is a city-led initiative that each year selects neighborhood groups who apply to partner with the city on improving their parks. In keeping with the tenets of permaculture, the food forest is ecologically designed to slow runoff and erosion on the banks of the river.Īs a 2019 winner of the Akron Parks Challenge, the Cascade Valley neighborhood will also see its built environment - seating, picnic tables, basketball courts and a performance area - improved and or constructed. Situated in the Cascade Valley neighborhood, not far from the Little Cuyahoga River, the forest is under development on the southwest end of Elizabeth Park. The plants are chosen for compatibility with one another and selected based on the site’s specific soils – and on the residents’ needs. Unlike community gardens, a food forest is created through permaculture – in just a couple years, the beds are expected to burst with perennial fruits, vegetables and herbs.

The forest is being planted by a small team assisted by many Cascade Valley neighbors and a large group of volunteers.

The projects are sponsored by the city of Akron, Akron's Park Collaborative, Neighborhood Networks of Habitat for Humanity, and the Living Water Association of the United Church of Christ.

A second similar food forest is planned for Boss Park across town The Cascade Valley food forest in Elizabeth Park is designed using permaculture to address a food desert in one of the city’s most neglected neighborhoods.