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By Alexandria Leatherberry<\/p>\nBy Alexandria Leatherberry<\/p>\n
The Truth Reporter<\/p>\n
Sonia Flunder-Mcnair, owner and founder of SoniaOrganics, has expanded into urban farming gaining representation and access to USDA Farms for minority communities. Her initiative birthed Urban Wholistics, a community-based effort to beautify land in neighborhoods that have been historically excluded from access to holistic green spaces.<\/p>\n
Urban Wholistics has been able to engage the community through land development and the education on fresh food cultivation as well as consumption. The Urban Wholistics initiative started with the Urban South Youth Farmers(USFY) program that has now cultivated a Youth Farmer\u2019s Market. The USYF program teaches children how to grow their own food and introduces modern technology for current relevancy.<\/p>\n
Urban Wholistics originated the passion through discovering the necessity for fresh food access after acquiring education on food nutrition. Flunder-McNair led the purpose-driven initiative to empower others to acquire the nutrients needed from food for healthy digestion and to combat health disparities faced in urban communities.<\/p>\n
\u201dHealth doesn\u2019t start in the doctor\u2019s office\u201d stated Flunder-McNair during our discussion on beginning the mission of urban farming. \u201cFood deserts are policy outcomes\u201d she continued.\u00a0 \u201cFood desserts are still where stores are because farmers produce food,\u201d she stated as the drive continues to create more secure access through \u2018pocket\u2019 neighborhood farms. Her initiative has now claimed a second green space, Tatum Park located at 1209 City Park Ave., to begin the cultivation of scaling neighborhood farming.<\/p>\n
In addition to scaling the spaces for fresh food access, SOrganics has expanded products for nutrition increasing the value of farm to table food consumption. \u201cI could feel the difference immediately\u201d, stated Artie Henry on participating in Sonia\u2019s wellness plan to combat his high blood pressure.<\/p>\n
Henry had been working with Sonia over several years and during that time saw over 70 pound weight loss. He attributes a lot of the success to consuming less processed foods \u201cI have the energy I used to, I started feeling and seeing the old me\u201d said Henry as he reflected on his counter experiences when trying similar store brand products.<\/p>\n
Delivering the education along with results, SOrganic products, Flunder-McNair is empowering other community members to develop green spaces in areas designated as a food desert. Offering work plans and advocacy for policies that better support neighborhood farms will be the work continuing behind the scenes for the Urban Wholistics initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hoping we are able to raise the next generation of farmers\u201d stated Flunder-McNair on her goals for Urban Wholistics. The youth program \u2018Farm to Fork\u2019 is accepting applications for summer at: urbanwholistics.org\/programs.<\/p>\n
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By Alexandria Leatherberry The Truth Reporter Sonia Flunder-Mcnair, owner and founder of SoniaOrganics, has expanded into urban farming gaining representation and access to USDA Farms for minority communities. Her initiative birthed Urban Wholistics, a community-based effort to beautify land in neighborhoods that have been historically excluded from access to holistic green spaces. Urban Wholistics has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[335],"class_list":["post-18582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18585,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18582\/revisions\/18585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18582"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=18582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}