When we originally mounted our preplanted panels at the Weingart Center on Skid Row, an ecosystem instantly began to develop right before our eyes! As we installed the panels at our three other sites, we watched in awe as insects and butterflies migrated to the driveways, courtyards and parking lots of the Rainbow Apartments, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. On November 6, 2009, we held a dedication event to honor our many sponsors and partners at the presentation of our new Guardian Wall Storage Boxes. These additional panels and boxes, mounted directly onto the wall system, provide safe and easily accessed storage space for gardening supplies.

Beginnings
The Food Chain Edible Wall project began when the founder of Urban Farming, Taja Sevelle, asked architect Robin Osler if we could grow food on walls. Robin and her team at Elmslie Osler Architect had recently established green living walls at retail spaces with the help of George Irwin, president of Green Living Technologies, the company that developed and provided the wall systems.

When we learned that George had been growing food on a wall system at his R&D facility in New York, we knew we had to create a model for this too, especially in urban environments where ground space isn't readily available. Walls are much more accessible and available than rooftops, and garden walls would offer people a direct connection with growing and eating healthy food. So began the collaboration between Urban Farming, Green Living Technologies and Elmslie Osler Architect for the Food Chain Edible Wall project.

Link by link
We came up with the name "Food Chain" because it really described our intention of having all our walls and participants linked to each other, sharing in the primary mission of Urban Farming, which is to end hunger in our generation by planting gardens on unused land and space. The Food Chain now has another link, this one at the Brotherhood/Sister Sol after-school facility in Harlem, New York, and more sites are in the planning stage, including an Edible Rooftop site that will include mobile A-frame food racks.

The four sites in Los Angeles were selected with much consideration, both for the physical demands of growing food crops (particularly within this unique wall system) and for the organizations and people who would be directly involved and benefitting from the walls. Just like ground gardens, these garden walls serve to connect people. Along with providing access to fresh, healthy food, an Edible Wall is a place where people participate in an outdoor activity, enjoy the beauty of nature, build self-esteem, interact with people from diverse backgrounds and professions, and gain training in new skills that can open the door to green job opportunities. Everyone at each site has access to the food from the Edible Walls and, as with the Urban Farming model, we also suggest that they share with neighbors in need.

A new landscape
There's a wonderful program we've had the pleasure of tapping into: the UCCE Common Ground Garden Program, whose master gardener volunteers teach and advise at our garden sites. Working with the wall panel system is an ongoing adventure. Thanks to Green Living Technologies and the participants and volunteers who are gardening on these walls day to day, all of us have developed a greater understanding of what we can accomplish now and going forward.

In the same way that Urban Farming gardens and our partner gardens provide food for people across 17 cities and five countries, we all need to participate in some way to really end hunger, community by community. During World War II, America's Victory Garden program mobilized 20 million people to plant food in their yards. They grew 40 percent of our country's produce. We know this will be accomplished again. But that's not really the end of it. We're on our way to seeing a new green landscape and skyscape flourish, with food crops growing on walls, on rooftops, in planters at malls and within buildings equipped with indoor growing systems. If there is sufficient light and access to water, there can be food crops growing!

Joyce Lapinsky is the program development consultant for Urban Farming , a nonprofit whose mission is to end hunger through establishing an abundance of healthy food for people in need by planting gardens on unused land and space while greening the environment; educating youths, adults and seniors; and providing a sustainable system to uplift communities. Please visit www.urbanfarming.org.