VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Two residents of South Syracuse work to combat food insecurity
AUGIE WALTERS: Behind Sankofa Cafe on the corner of South Salina Street and McKinley Avenue lives a small plot of land. And while that area needs a lot of cleaning, Charles Madlock uses the weed wacker to in hopes to turn that into a garden of dreams. This will be the second garden he owns, and he does this hard work ahead of time in an effor to the neighborhood grow.
CHARLES MADLOCK: Once I have the community who wants to take ownership of a community garden, the only thing I have to do is come give them the resources and education and like they do what they do, because they enjoy gardening.”
WALTERS: At the same time as madlock is helping build these gardens, just five minutes down the street at the valley plaza, more discussions about implementing fresh food are being had. In 2018, the Tops grocery store in the plaza closed down, and for people in the area, the only food they could easily get were processed goods from the dollar general. Then one day, Rhonda vesey decided it was time to make a change.
RHONDA VESEY: I saw folks just like today, using Dollar General, like it’s a grocery store and it’s not. And I felt like, wow, why do people have to settle like, that’s not a store? There is no healthy, fresh food options in there.”
WALTERS: And a change she has made. Vesey now hosts farmers markets with up to twenty vendors on the weekends, and has made an arrangement to turn the empty grocery store into a Super Imperial Markets in 2026. But as we head back to the garden, Madlock understands that even if fresh food is on the shelves, it can be expensive for individuals.
MADLOCK: “You can put a million grocery stores around the city of Syracuse, but it’s it really ain’t gonna matter because people can’t afford to buy food.”
WALTERS: So even though the two may have different approaches, their end goal is the same. Their efforts are helping with the problem of food insecurity in Syracuse one day at a time. Augie Walters, NCC News
Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) — Two residents are going about tackling food insecurity in South Syracuse in different ways.
On the corner of South Salina Street and McKinley Avenue, Charles Madlock, the camgain manager of Nourish Syracuse, is turning a small bit of land he has purchased behind Sankofa Cafe into a community garden.
Madlock hopes that by clearing weeds and preparing the land, he can create a space for neighbors to grow fresh produce, due to the high prices of groceries.
He also aims to share his gardening knowledge to help the community maintain and sustain the garden long-term.
“Once I have the community who wants to take ownership of a community garden,” Madlock said.”The only thing I have to do is give them the resources and education.”
Just a few blocks down the street, Rhonda Vesey, the project director of Food Acess Healthy Neighborhoods Now! (FAHNN), is working to bring fresh food to Valley Plaza, which has not seen a grocery store since the Tops closed down in 2018.
This has been a project Vesey has been working on since the pandemic after she initially visted the plaza and saw customers leaving with strickly processed food.
“I saw folks just like today, using Dollar General, like it’s a grocery store and it’s not. And I felt like, wow, why do people have to settle like, that’s not a store?” Vesey said.
Through FAHNN, Vesey now is able to organize farmers markets in the plaza on a weekly basis, and is replacing the empty grocery store with a Super Imperial Markets in 2026.