WhyHunger’s 4th Annual Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards Networking Day brought in food activists from around the country to meet, swap stories, share innovative ideas, skills, tools and strategies for continuing to build healthy communities. WhyHunger staff and partners facilitated networking workshops and a local site visit to the pioneering Taqwa Community Farm in Bronx, NY.

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Under the shade of the fruit orchard, founders Abu Talib, Bobby Watson, and Ocynthia Williams shared food and stories with the group. Taqwa’s flowering beds and bee hives dripping with honey proved to be an inspiring meeting place .  Once an empty lot that served as the neighborhood dumping ground, the garden is now lush with a vibrant community of local gardeners, activists, children and neighborhood elders. Led by City Farms Program Manager Owen Taylor of Just Food, HCSRA winners came together  to share their visions of  healthy, empowered communities and to begin relationships that will lead to action across the country. By the end of the day, these community-based activists left motivated, energized, and with the feeling that they were a part of something bigger – and they are.