The COVID‑19 pandemic has exacerbated existing food insecurity in the Watts community in Los Angeles, where the Transformative Climate Communities Program (TCC) in 2017 made a $33.25 million investment of California Climate Investment funds to implement the Watts Rising vision. To ensure continued access to fresh produce throughout the pandemic, the Watts Rising collaborative partners harnessed their existing virtual community engagement events as a platform to distribute food and critical public health information.
Watts Rising exemplifies the power of investing in social resilience, which enables communities to weather unexpected challenges. Since the projects were already “up and running prior to [the pandemic], it was just about adapting it, so it can be COVID‑safe,” said Haleemah Henderson of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee.
Two community garden projects funded through TCC, Watts Community Healing Tech Gardens and MudTown Farms, after adjusting to new health standards set by the Centers for Disease Control, are continuing to distribute fresh produce to the community through the pandemic to alleviate food insecurity.
“I know pretty much everyone has been affected food security‑wise,” said Ava Post, with MudTown Farms. “The need for produce has gone up, so it's been great to be able to continue to offer the service especially when people need it the most.”
The Safe Passages to School program — part of the TCC‑funded Walk Bike Watts project — also pivoted its focus to improve food security after schools went remote. We Care Outreach distributed meals in collaboration with East Side Riders.
Community engagement is an essential component of all TCC‑funded projects, and Watts Rising had planned many in‑person events and activities. To adapt to the pandemic, the Watts Rising partners moved meetings and classes online, prioritized social media and other digital outreach, and sent mailers and distributed flyers in lieu of face‑to‑face engagement.
Walk Bike Watts responded quickly to the stay‑at‑home order, canceling “the Walk to School day and the Bike to School day,” said Jackie Valladares, with Urban Peace Institute. “But our monthly meetings continued. We had a good momentum of engaging everyone…We saw that there were so many things happening quickly, [so] we doubled our virtual meetings to twice a month” to help share important public health information.
TCC’s investment in social capital is helping the Watts Rising Collaborative implement projects that improve community members’ day‑to‑day lives and build resilience in the face of COVID‑19.