Mohammed Hoque’s face breaks into a warm smile.  “Yes, these are all my friends.”  He’s pointing out several planter beds tended by members of the local mosque.  Recruiting each other at the mosque has been his gateway to the East Hollywood Community Garden.  

“The people with garden plots are reflective of the diversity of the community,” says Alejandro Pesquera, who lives around the corner and has been a part of the garden from the beginning two years ago when the site was just empty dirt.  “This is the first time I had extended conversations with people I didn’t know in the neighborhood and this was a big deal for me. The community is always changing, there are new faces all the time, as well as those you already know.  The majority of the outreach decisions, if you can call them that, come from within the group just committed to bringing their neighbors to the place.” Looking toward Mohammed’s plot next to his.  “Who would have thought I’d be learning to cook Bangladeshi food in my own kitchen?”

“The biggest reason that there is diversity at the garden is because of where it is located, East Hollywood.”  Louise Leonard is Chair of the garden’s all-volunteer leadership team.  She says she learned her organizing skills 20 years ago when she was a neighborhood bartender in New York City.  Over 12,000 people live within a 10-minute walk, but as the local garden-tender, she knows that inclusivity doesn’t happen on its own.  “All the gardeners, not just the leadership team, are always talking about our responsibility to reflect that diversity.  We’re all constantly learning how to do that.”   Louise dreams of one day having herb beds along the curb and a permanent sign inviting people in.   For now, the community finds its way in peering over the fence while the children play in the adjacent playground.  The garden is tucked back behind the playground and the bright blue shipping container office of the LA Community Garden Council. The Garden Council serves gardens just like this one all across Southern California. 

Louise is a food stylist and lives less than two miles away, but she found the garden through a friend’s post on Twitter.  She won her plot in the garden’s founding lottery and has been hooked ever since.  The garden opened in July 2019, and their first Instagram post had 7 likes.  Today she is regularly posting pictures of plants and volunteer days to almost 800 followers.  That’s quite a lot more than the 31 gardeners with plots and the 20 or so more regular volunteers.  The waitlist for a plot is open to anyone, and people wait months for an opening. Neighbors come by to volunteer while they wait.  All plot gardeners are required to spend two hours a week volunteering in the community areas in addition to their $15 per month plot member dues.

On one Saturday morning community day, Louise has to step out for work, and Esther Tseng fills in as volunteer coordinator.  Esther lives within walking distance.  She is an established food writer with over 20,000 followers, but she had to shift gears during the pandemic when the city’s vibrant food scene came to a halt.  The garden is not just a place to take pictures of delicious food and trade recipes.  It has been central to the writing she does now about how people are finding affordable, healthy food during a global crisis.  Through her experience at the community garden, she’s able to tell the story of how Los Angeles has been struggling for food justice well before it was making headlines.  For any volunteer, the food in the community plot is free, a welcome relief during challenging times.