LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Saturday the Obodo Collective, a Las Vegas-area nonprofit, brought people together to celebrate their greengrocer and urban farm after five years in the making.
Located on the corner of Monroe Avenue and C Street, the grand opening brought out a line of customers wrapped around the block to get some fresh produce, a new option in the Historic Westside.
It’s also a reason to celebrate for Obodo Collective Executive Director Tameka Henry.
“It means so much because there are so many, health ailments that happen because you don’t have access to fresh, locally sourced produce,” she said. “So, to have that here, readily available transportation isn’t a barrier. You can walk right across the street from your home and get fresh food.”
Fresh food was available in the building with various fruits and veggies for sale.
The greengrocer is not just a place to purchase food. There’s also an urban farm where anybody can come by and plant seeds or harvest their own fresh produce.
Shoppers, like Keno Walter, are excited about the healthy choices.
“It’s going to teach kids how to eat different, teach parents how to cook different, teach people how to farm different, teach people how to live different overall. That’s what I think,” Walter said.
Many others at the grand opening were thinking the same as Walter.
“That means they can live a healthier quality of life,” Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy II said.
Commissioner McCurdy, picked up some celery, tangerines, broccolini and more from the greengrocer.
“They can come and pick their fresh food right here from the community garden and they can shop at the grocery store,” McCurdy said.
While the area may have lacked fresh food in the past, Obodo Collective co-founder Erica Vital-Lazare said it was never short of spirit.
“This is a community that’s so full of wealth in its own right. The wealth of the people, the wealth of history, the wealth, sweat equity,” she said.
The urban farm also serves as a place to learn with the Obodo collective holding gardening classes every Saturday.
