If you want to keep up with Ray Warthen, put on your running shoes. The 39-year-old is always on the go. He moves so fast through his urban garden in Parramore that it’s hard to keep up with him as he points out the food.
Warthen moves about as fast as the bees do as he moves through this plot of land where hope grows as much as the food planted there.
When Warthen first started the garden, it was full of trash and homeless people often slept there. But Warthen was sure that the garden would grow.
“We only had portable toilets here. This place had nothing, “Then, Warth said. “There was nothing there at all. Even the power poles had to be put in by us.”
Warthen spent many nights sleeping on the land to help the garden grow. His job is to make sure that people in Parramore, whose average income is about $17,000 a year, can get organic, locally-grown food.
“I went to the house across the street and asked what they wanted to grow there. Ms. Gladys said, “Baby, I need my collard greens,” and Miss Williams said, “I need my mustards.” So I gave them what they asked for. Why would I want to grow chives? They do not eat things like chives, mushrooms, or squash. I didn’t plant things that people wouldn’t eat, “Then, Warth said.
Warthen said that the garden really took off during the COVID-19 pandemic when Parramore schoolchildren who usually ate at school were left without food.
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“When there’s no more school, guess what? There’s no school for a whole year. There are no more meals, so we gave out garbage bags and tall kitchen bags full of food to the community. That’s when people realized, “Holy crap, this garden is really here for us,” and that’s what earned us the respect of the community.”
When asked what about the garden gives him hope, Warthen said, “Well, I always tell people that crime happens because there aren’t enough opportunities, so 40% of this garden, including the wood structure shed and everything you see here, was built by homeless people right back here.”
Because of what he did for the homeless in Parramore, he earned a lot of respect. People have called the area the “Emerald of Parramore” because of how well they protect it.
“I call them my drug salespeople on the street,” Warthen said with a laugh. “They also help protect the garden, and when they tell Ray, “Don’t worry about the garden,” they mean it.
His history is also a sign of respect. Warthen is a farmer from the fifth generation. It runs in his family.
Julius July Perry, a farmer from Ocoee, was killed by a white mob 100 years ago because he fought for the right of black people to vote. Warthen sees this as a continuation of that legacy and the Greek proverb that says a society gets better when someone plants a tree whose shade they will never sit in.
“I hope that we can reduce the number of food deserts in the future,” said Warthen. “People always ask me, “Ray, why do you work so hard?” and I tell them that my other passion is my family and my kids because I want them to have the same chances, name, and respect after I’m gone. So, when they find out that Ray Warthen is their dad, they say, “Ok, respect.”
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