Bilal Walker, aspiring African American anthropologist and urban farmer, partnered with the City of Newark earlier this year to address food access, a need identified in the city’s 2020 sustainability plan. As a result, Bilal leased an abandoned lot in North Newark and successfully transformed it into Jannah on Grafton, an urban garden oasis created to build a stronger, sustainable, and more self-reliant lower Grafton Avenue community through vacant lot activation. Now Jannah on Grafton is equipped to regularly provide twenty local families with access to healthy food options, urban gardening advocacy, and sustainable education workshops.
To celebrate their progress towards food sovereignty, the JOG team partnered with La Casa de Don Pedro, Table to Table, Skopos Hospitality Group, and Newark North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr. to provide 100 local families with fruits, vegetables, and other food goods on Friday June 19th for their First Annual Juneteenth Produce Pantry. With the help of over 25 volunteers, all the food was distributed within three hours, as it was truly a community effort.
Click here to learn more about the incredible work Jannah on Grafton is doing in Newark.