SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— A San Diego non-profit, Project New Village, has been fighting food insecurity for over 30 years, bringing fresh food to a community that usually goes without.
The group runs a mobile farmer's market and the Mt. Hope Community Garden on Market St. in Southeast San Diego.
"To live a quality life, you have to eat quality food, right? Food is essential to living. It’s essential to living a good life," said Diane Moss, CEO of Project New Village. "We want the best where we live. I don’t want to have to move somewhere else so I can eat good food."
Moss started Project New Village in 1994 and then broke ground on the community garden in 2011.
The County of San Diego says our community has several food deserts where it's hard to find affordable and nutritious food. Southeast San Diego is one of these, making the work even more important.
"Not only are we one of the areas in town where we have low access to food, but that equates to not having the best health outcomes, either," said Moss. "We have more than our share of folks with diabetes, hypertension and other diseases that are directly related, sometimes, to your diet intake."
People grow their own food, flowers and plants in the community garden. Some of it goes into Project New Village's mobile farmer's market. After 30 years, Moss says this work is just beginning.
"What we’re building is called the 'good food district.' That’s a geographic location that involves Southeastern San Diego and the border cities...National City, Lemon Grove, Barrio Logan," said Moss. "So all of us are kind of neighbor and have land that we can use. Maximize that use, so we can feel better."
For Diane Moss's work in the community with Project New Village, ABC 10News and Lead San Diego awarded her the leadership award for the month of September. If you want to nominate someone for this award, check out the leadership section of our website.
Click here if you want to learn more about Project New Village.
