In LOVE with Humanity

Hero #047: Robin Emmons
In 2008, after her brother became ill due to a diet heavy in canned and sugary foods,
Robin Emmons began donating produce from her garden to the facility where he was being
treated -- and saw his health improve dramatically as a result. Looking anew thereafter at
her own community, she had the impression that hundreds of other people were suffering as
well from health problems caused by poor diets -- and it turned out she was right. A study
from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte confirmed her impressions, showing that
more than 72,000 low-income city residents, most of them minorities, effectively lived in
―food deserts‖ -- areas without ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
It was at this point that Robin decide to do something to help -- quitting her corporate
job, digging up her entire backyard, and turning it into a garden for those in need. Since that
first year, with the current help of over 200 volunteers who tend her 9 acres of crops, she has
grown and distributed more than 26,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables for area residents.
She strives to make her food as affordable as possible (either donating items or selling them for
about half their normal cost in the average grocery store). Customers are able to use food stamps
to purchase everything she sells, which include seeds and seedlings -- enabling others to
grow their own food themselves.
―It was an injustice. ... Healthy food is a basic human right ... I had a small garden, so I
thought, 'Well, I'll just put in some extra rows', and I simply began making weekly deliveries
of whatever was coming up.‖ ~ Robin Emmons
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