Sojourner’s Truth Staff
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator, is in the midst of a very competitive campaign with his Republican opponent, J.D. Vance. Ryan stopped by Toledo on Monday, September 12, to examine the progress of a community garden in the city’s central neighborhood.
Ryan was greeted by Sonia Flunder-McNair, CEO of Sonia Organics and also of Urban Wholistics, a non profit, health, community based, grassroots initiative created to beautify open land in neighborhoods that have been historically excluded from access to wholistic green spaces.
“These urban areas, we have got to have reinvestment back into them,” said Ryan after he had toured the community garden with Flunder-McNair and spoken to several of the workers on hand.
These are the types of programs that actually lift people up,” he added. These communities use to be really big and they’ve shrunk, so what do you do with the green space? Do you turn them into productive use, create jobs and have healthy food? It’s a win across the board. We have to stop doing programs that don’t work and we’ve got to invest in programs that do work.”
The community garden is located in the Junction neighborhood next to the Art Tatum house that is being restored.
