Gardening

I am writing to thank you for publishing the article “Nickerson’s Gardeners Get Their Reward” by Stephen Braun (Metro, March 29). It was truly “rewarding” to see such a positive representation of activities in public housing.

When Diane Silverman, executive director of End World Hunger, approached the Housing Authority with this idea last fall, the Board of Commissioners and I were delighted to cooperate with this experiment in urban gardening in a Los Angeles public housing community. As the article points out so well, the collaboration of agencies, and more importantly, the positive and active involvement of the residents was a recipe for success. The residents at Nickerson Gardens have done a wonderful job!

The Housing Authority has a newly created Resident Services Department which has already discussed the possibility of future gardens with End World Hunger at other Housing Authority sites, as well as initiating plans for other resident-involved activities. Your positive representation of these efforts is a tremendous boost to the residents, and to the Housing Authority which serves them.

LEILA GONZALEZ-CORREA

Executive Director

Los Angeles Housing Authority