It’s a scorching summer afternoon in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood, which would keep many people inside. But Raqueeb Bey has serious gardening chores to do for her community, so she toils away and digs in a raised bed of peppers.
“I live five doors up the street,” says Bey, 54. “This time of year, I try to come three times a week.”
Bey and her organization, Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-op (BUGS), formed in 2015. It created and cares for the one-acre organic Homewood Historical Community Farm, which grows vegetables and herbs from the ground and fruit on trees, chemical-free. The farm, divided into two sections, includes an apiary for honeybees to pollinate the peach, pear, and pawpaw fruit trees. A hoop house provides shelter and extends the growing season to year-round for some crops.
The farm, which started as a weed-filled lot acquired from the city of Pittsburgh in 2017, was planted to give the community better access to fresh, nutritious produce.
Homewood, a predominantly Black area of the city with a high poverty rate, has not had a grocery store since 1994. The nearest supermarket is in Penn Hills, a Pittsburgh suburb about 15 minutes away. Homewood used to have a Family Dollar store, but it carried only processed, frozen, canned, and packaged foods — and it closed earlier this year.
“No one should have to go outside their community to shop,” says Bey, who has lived in Homewood off and on for most of her life. “Not everybody has reliable transportation.”
Though many people would refer to Homewood as a “food desert” — a low-income area where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food — BUGS prefers a harsher term for this environmental injustice: food apartheid.
“We prefer the word ‘food apartheid’ instead of ‘food desert’ because the desert is something organic and beautiful,” Bey says.
Maurice Wofford, the apiary manager, says that food apartheid can have serious consequences.
“You’re left with corner stores and junk food,” says Wofford, 42, who drives about an hour and 15 minutes from his home in Meadville, Pennsylvania, to the Pittsburgh farm to care for the bees and fruit trees. “I look at it as akin to biological warfare because it has a devastating effect on people’s physical health. That suffers, and so does mental health. It’s very destructive. It’s a dangerous domino effect. Kids are growing up on potato chips and junk food.”
The Homewood Historical Farm shares its crops — including peppers, greens, cabbage, collard greens, rosemary, and thyme — with BUGS volunteers and Homewood neighbors. Every Saturday from June through October, BUGS volunteers sell crops at a farmers market and give away anything they don’t sell.
BUGS is currently seeking to obtain other lots from the city of Pittsburgh to expand gardening space, and City Council members have been helpful, Bey says. The group has also been working toward an ultimate goal for the past nine years: a cooperative grocery store, democratically run in Homewood.
It’s a project of love and it’s a project of community. We have a saying: We grow food, minds, and leaders. That’s what it’s all about.
– Raqueeb Bey, Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh
Bey envisions the store as offering about 70% fresh crops, with no sugar, processed food, nicotine products, or lottery tickets. BUGS hopes to open the store in 2026.
Meanwhile, BUGS continues to care for its land. About 12 BUGS volunteers take care of the Homewood Historical Farm, and any Black growers in Pittsburgh are welcome to join. “People can come out and help,” she says. “It’s a source to provide food for the community when we can. We have led by example and led the way for other Black growers to do the work. We have paved the way.”
The apiary on the property opened about six years ago, and the bees are essential for pollinating crops, Wofford and Bey say. BUGS started with two hives, then expanded to four, and now has a dozen. The bees buzz around, in and near their chambers in a fenced-off area near the fruit trees.
Without them, the garden and crops would suffer. About one-third of the food we eat is directly or indirectly dependent on bees for pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and about 75% of fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown in the U.S. depends on bees. Due to factors like climate change, loss of habitat, and pesticide use, many species of bees are endangered.
“Without bees, we won’t be able to eat,” Bey says. “I wish our government would pay more attention.”
Growing the crops and caring for the bees takes a mammoth effort, but BUGS volunteers are dedicated and understand the importance of the farm, Bey and Wofford say.
“It has an overall positive impact on the local community,” Wofford says. “It gives kids exposure to what a short time ago was only really prevalent in rural areas. The neighborhood looks out for the farm. We do our best to look out for neighbors as well. It’s a community morale booster.”
Bey agrees. “It’s a project of love and it’s a project of community,” she says. “We have a saying: We grow food, minds, and leaders. That’s what it’s all about.”
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