The City of Austin is sharpening its focus on food access as it becomes increasingly apparent that in a city where many struggle to afford housing and transportation, there are also “food deserts” where healthy food is very hard to find and afford. Many City leaders believe community gardens can be an important part of the solution. Currently, there are 55 community gardens in the Austin area. Fourteen of those community gardens are on City land as well as six senior gardens for residents ages 55 and older. The City is studying ways to use more public land for community and urban gardening.

You can find out more about Austin’s community gardens by visiting the Coalition of Austin Community Gardens website, and by watching the Keep Austin Affordable feature below. It’s part of HousingWorks Austin’s preparation for our Housing + Health Summit on November 17th. Find out more about the summit at http://housingworks.org/summit.

In this video, we also meet Julio Perez and his team of communal gardeners. They grow organic vegetables that go into the Hope Food Pantry at the RBJ Senior Center. Perez says he enjoys gardening and he especially loves knowing the healthy food he produces is going to help seniors and disabled people who have faced affordability challenges.