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How Can You Give A Community Better Health?

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Giving It Away.

About Ron Finley's TEDTalk

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

People asked me, 'Fin, aren't you afraid people are going to steal your food?' And I'm like, 'Hell no, I ain't afraid they're gonna steal it. That's why it's on the street. That's the whole idea. I want them to take it.'

About Ron Finley

Ron Finley grows a nourishing food culture in South Central LA's food desert by planting the seeds and tools for healthy eating. Finley's vision for a healthy, accessible "food forest" started with the curbside veggie garden he planted in the strip of dirt in front of his own house. When the city tried to shut it down, Finley's fight gave voice to a larger movement that provides nourishment, empowerment, education — and healthy, hopeful futures — one urban garden at a time.

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NPR/TED Staff