On April 16, 2020, LAGG Founder and Master Gardener Florence Nishida gave a presentatin to UCLA's class "COM HLT 131: Healthy Food Access in Los Angeles: History and Practice of Urban Agriculture", taught by Professior James Bassett.

Florence spoke about Healthy Food Access. This is a topic dear to her heart.

"I was instrumental in getting the changes in codified restrictions on front yard plantings -- in order to allow people to plant even food crops on their parkway spaces. I am a stout supporter of urban agriculture, in small spaces, when necessary, and I strongly support the use of vacant land for urban agriculture, rather than simply allowing it to be idle.

"With my organization LA Green Grounds, I have started the LA Green Grounds Teaching Garden, with the intention of enlarging the audience for residential, front yard growing of healthy edibles. We are strongly in support of people becoming empowered to create a greater food security. And we are also providing workshops to a larger audience on other garden related subjects, e.g. fermentation, stress reduction with herbs, etc."

This topic was especially timely with the challenges COVID-19 presented.

Florence presentation and hand out is linked below. We hope you find them useful.

Presentation: The Heart of Gardens is People - Making Urban Food Gardens 

Hand-out: What to plant, grow and eat now