PRESS & MEDIA

This Women’s History Month we honor women who are making a difference in our communities. We’d like to shed light on two women leading Health in the Hood, an important partners of ours - Founder Asha Loring and Opa Locka Community Garden Manager Corine Newsome. Health in the Hood is a non-profit which began as a passion and is now on a mission to end food disparity in South Florida, striving to create a comprehensive health and wellness environment for urban communities that don’t have access to natural food supply.

We kicked off our series on food deserts and food insecurity a few weeks ago by looking at the history and key terms around the issue, and the factors that add to the problem here in Miami.

Now, we want to highlight some folks finding solutions. First up is the work of Health in the Hood, an organization building community gardens in underserved areas that have historically lacked fresh produce and healthy food options. We spoke with Asha Walker, the organization’s founder and executive director, about her goals and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

If you see a young woman measuring and staking vacant land in your neighborhood, passing out flyers and offering to pay you to work in a garden, it might be Asha Loring of Health in the Hood on her quest to bring fresh produce to South Florida food deserts.

Loring is founder and executive director of Health in the Hood, a nonprofit that installs community gardens in residential food deserts and offers health education programs. Loring, whose professional background is in nonprofit administration, mastered grant writing and worked in different communities before launching the South Florida organization.  

Today we’d like to introduce you to Asha Loring.

Asha, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Health in the Hood began 5 years ago as an answer to the call for fresh foods in low-income communities. We found the health and wellness disparities among Miami neighborhoods was palpable. Having grown up in a community gardening family – the notion of growing fresh foods in vacant lots was not a foreign concept to us. My father began an urban farming organization in the 90s that focused its efforts in Overtown Miami – providing free, fresh foods for residents. Health in the Hood expanded upon this model in 2013 by building and maintaining 5 vegetable gardens across South Florida while providing health education resources for children and families.

For Alicia Curtis, a mother of four, grocery shopping can be tough. She lives in Opa-locka, in an area called a “food desert,” where the closest supermarket is at least a mile away.

“It’s considered a poverty area,” Curtis said. “We don’t have much resources around us. We have a lot of corner stores, which don’t have a lot of healthy options there."

In South Florida, there are more than 300 food deserts.

Miami Gardens resident Zelma Chisholm has defied the odds: she’s had a heart attack three times, and is still alive to talk about it.

“You think you’re going to die,” Chisholm told NBC 6. “That’s the first thing that comes to your mind.”

The 77-year-old lives with cardiovascular disease, which is the number one killer in the world. Each year, about 17.9 million people die from it. It’s also the number one killer of women and Black people in America. 

NBC 6’s Kelly Blanco shows how one special lady has been working to bring fresh food to low income areas.

In March, we announced we’re doubling down on our commitment to build cities around people, not cars, by partnering with our community of drivers, riders, local activists and city leaders to achieve maximum positive impact through an initiative called Lyft City Works. We believe it’s our civic responsibility to address key problems our communities are facing through better access to transportation, with the goal of improving city life.

This Women’s History Month we honor women who are making a difference in our communities. We’d like to shed light on two women leading Health in the Hood, an important partners of ours – Founder Asha Loring and Opa Locka Community Garden Manager Corine Newsome. Health in the Hood is a non-profit which began as a passion and is now on a mission to end food disparity in South Florida, striving to create a comprehensive health and wellness environment for urban communities that don’t have access to natural food supply.