Born: 1956 (circa), United States (assumed)
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
As Dawn M. Blackman Sr. tells the story, “I was a city girl … I did not know a thing about gardening. Then, in 2003, I started gardening with 10 neighborhood children.” That project, started in her 50s, grew into Randolph Street Community Garden. When the master gardeners for what was then Stratton Garden Plots withdrew and the garden faced foreclosure, Blackman stepped up as steward, recruiting residents from a local senior living facility as volunteers. What began as eight beds grew to 42 within the first two years, an expansion that continued over the years to more than 60.
The Champaign, Illinois area that is home to the garden is considered a food desert, a neighborhood where healthy, inexpensive food is not easily available. As Blackman explained a decade into her time at the garden, “When people come to church for food assistance, their eyes light up at the sight of fresh tomatoes, beans and potatoes. I recruit them to become gardeners and offer them a bed of their own to plant.
Now we have families growing their own vegetables, and community members purchasing affordable food at our marketplace. More than 1,800 people received fresh produce, and we gave away more than 4,000 pounds of surplus prepared foods.”
But the garden grows more than just food in its neighborhood. “Our community members range in age from three to 93, and speak Arabic, Berber, Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. We have a lot of divisions in our community, but in the garden everyone is the same.”