‘Seeds of Change’ | The City of East Point sponsors garden bucket giveaway at Community Garden Field Day

In partnership with Food Well Alliance and the ArtsXchange, East Point welcomed the beginning of growing season with community artisans market

EAST POINT, Ga. — As Summer 2021 draws near here in metro Atlanta, dozens of events and activities both new or perennial have begun sprouting up around the city. 

This time last year, everything from beauty and barbershops to blockbusters and the Braves had already or were about to shutter in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown.

Tucked behind Main Street just a couple of blocks away from Langford Parkway, the grounds in and around the ArtsXChange facility was bustling with activity on Saturday, May 1st.

Located on Newnan Street in Colonial Hills, the ArtXChange facility occupies the grounds once inhabited by the Jere Wells Elementary School. 

Last Fall, the community cultural center whose called East Point its home for the past couple of years, began implementing outdoor artisan markets as a part of its Cultural Connections program. The May Day Field Day marking its first artisan market for 2021. 

Vox Pop ATL spoke with the city of East Point’s recently implemented Urban Agricultural Manager, Tenisio Seanima about the bucket garden giveaway and some of the city’s plans. 

“Today, we actually gave away some bucket gardens where people can literally just take a bucket with a plant in it back home and grow their own food,” states Seanima.

“We're allowing people to come out support the different artists that are here at the market, but in addition to that, people actually come and learn about different agricultural activities.”

Seanima tells Vox Pop that this would be the first of many Field Days that the city has planned with the ArtsXChange as a part of East Point’s newly-enacted Urban Agricultural Plan.  

“We are the first city in the southeastern region of the United States to actually have a comprehensive plan that includes a segment devoted to urban agriculture, and my job is to help initiate the process of making that plan come to life. So, it's an exciting time,” Seanima shares.

Vox Pop ATL spoke with one of Field Day vendors, Wendy Golding, owner/operator of Greatest Of All Pops or GOAP. The Hapeville-based, vegan ice cream company has only been in business for the past 6 months.

“The community has been amazing, and I really get all of my vibes and energy from the community. Everyone has been so supportive and so helpful,” proclaims Golding. 

“So, I made a point to source only local Black-owned and minority farms for all my fruits. So, buying a pop is more than just buying a pop. It’s literally putting money back on other people's tables but it's also giving this Black girl hopes and dreams and just the ambition to keep going.”

The May Day Field Day event was the first open-air market held in the Tri-Cities this year but certainly will not be the last. 

For more information about the city of East Point’s Agricultural Plan, click here to see the draft in its entirety, and for more information about the ArtsXchange community cultural center, visit their website.

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