Homegrown Politics
How a mom's backyard garden planted the seeds for political advocacy
Courtney McCary-Squyres was going a bit stir-crazy. It was the pandemic and she was a mom of four, including newborn twins. She had to get outside.
She set her eyes on container gardening, figuring that she could get outside into the New Mexico sunshine and “put some seeds in a pot with the kids.”
What she and her children put into those first pots grew, but so did Courtney’s understanding of food, food systems, and politics. This is how, fast forward to today, she and a group of neighbors are now getting ready to head to Santa Fe with folders of policy memos under their arms.
A Food Desert
Courtney taught herself about gardening the way many of us now learn things: the internet. She read and researched, and as her front and back yards slowly turned into a small farm, she became familiar with terms like “soil health” and “cultivars.” She documented her progress on Instagram.
As her interest grew, she headed to her local farmer’s market in Alamogordo, a small desert town of about 30,000 residents set in the Tularosa basin. The Air Force base had brought Courtney and her husband here, and it was so beautiful that they decided to stay.
The farmers market was “smaller than expected and consisted of more craft than food vendors,” says Courtney. She began to wonder why, in this rural area, it was so hard to find fresh, locally grown food. The next time she visited the market, she brought five bundles of bok choy from her garden to share.
Alamogordo is a working-class town. Because of its proximity to three military bases, lots of veterans live here. Like many places in New Mexico, housing costs have skyrocketed and rent is taking up a bigger portion of locals' paychecks, making family’s food purchases– and particularly the quality of food— dwindle. As a result, 16.5% of Otero County’s population is food insecure, higher than both the state and national average.
Food is often the first thing a family skimps on when facing tough budgets; you can’t pay half the light bill, but you can cut back on groceries.
Courtney also saw that Alamogordo neighborhoods had a lot of empty lots. “I think a lot of people bought here when things were less expensive and just left the houses when they moved away. Or maybe they left houses to family members who didn’t end up utilizing them,” she says, pointing out that houses frequently catch fire or fall into disrepair, leaving the city to bulldoze them.
Seeing the blight and witnessing the food insecurity around her, Courtney thought: Is there anything more our local government could do to address these needs?
Public Land for Food
Courtney set out to get the Alamogordo City Government to respond. She created a petition asking the City to dedicate empty land for fresh food production and help foot the bill. She started with her friends asking them to sign on, and then asked her growing Facebook following. She tackled the petition drive systematically, the way you might lay out a garden bed.
“We set a goal of 500 signatures, because that feels big and representative in a small town. I asked my friends to share it, then they asked theirs. We formed a committee and started knocking on doors and going to local events to get signatures.”
They called themselves With Many Hands and they called the campaign Pubic Land for Food. They set up meetings with the local government asking for commitments to the project. They formed a leadership committee of people closest to the problem: Working-class people who live in the neighborhoods that were food deserts and knew the issue first-hand. Courtney knew from her own growing garden at home, that food production– or community organizing– wasn’t something she could do alone. So she began calling the people who had signed the petition, asking them to volunteer, attend meetings, and get involved.
“Through the petition, a lot of meetings, and persistent emails, we got our garden,” Courtney says. “We got our public land.”
Chihuahuita
The first garden is now growing on Maryland Avenue in the Chihuahuita neighborhood– an under-resourced, historically Black and Brown neighborhood just south of downtown. Importantly, they also secured a Memorandum of Understanding, cost sharing the water bill and other infrastructure needs with the group. They host regular community work days and open meetings to organize and plan. “We are not a budget line in the Parks and Recreation budget yet, but hopefully soon,” says Courtney.
The project has rapidly expanded– a church offered up an additional lot, Alamogordo Mainstreet– the local downtown economic development nonprofit- contributed raised beds to garden in a downtown alleyway, they even secured a corner of a public park in Tularosa, 15 miles up Rt. 54.
The group refuses to lock the gardens or have limitations on who or how much someone can harvest. “Sometimes people ask me if they can harvest vegetables even if they haven’t volunteered,” says Courtney, “And I tell them that harvesting is volunteering because it's all a cycle and all the parts matter. If we don’t pick the fruit, the plant will die.”
Growing Politics
“People say: I thought you all were gardening,” laughs Courtney, “And I say: We are!”
Tending a garden meant to address food insecurity takes more than just weeding and watering. In Alamogordo, it means organizing people and power, too.
“I never imagined myself getting involved in political work,” Courtney says, laughing. “I was really jaded, like a lot of Americans.” But in just five years, her journey from wanting to learn how to garden to now preparing to drive three and a half hours to the state capital to meet with her representatives has been a whirlwind. She is planning on talking to state lawmakers about funding HB229, which would help working-class households in New Mexico become small-scale food producers– maybe even selling their harvests to the Alamogordo Public Schools or at the local farmers’ market.
Courtney has learned that all soil can be regenerated with a little work— and everything needs cultivation. She started off seeing a community problem and dug around to find other people who also cared, then through organizing, they planted the seeds for how their local government could help.
Through this organizing, Courtney has experienced both the limitations– the red tape, the bureaucracy– and the possibilities of government. Turning those blighted properties into thriving green community spaces has made her even more sure that, with persistence and elbow grease, regular people could get the government to work for them.
Last fall, With Many Hands held a Food and Housing Summit to get working-class people together to talk about food, housing, and other local everyday people's needs. Hundreds of local residents turned out, eager to talk about these local issues and hear from candidates about what they would do if elected. The community was energized.
The group made endorsements of candidates running for local office and congress and then, fanning out over their community, canvassed for these candidates. “We had learned that we need to have people in office who are going to support what we need and help us with the solutions,” explains Courtney. She and the others felt that they needed to help set the agenda for what they wanted their elected officials to address; otherwise, “they’ll never talk about food or food systems.”
When met with skepticism about mixing politics with gardening, she reminds her neighbors of the successful petition drive they held to leverage their people power and show their ability to their local government – and how they now have four overflowing gardens. “We’ve shown that with enough people, enough pressure, things can get done.”
Cucumbers, zucchini, basil, figs, and nectarines. It just takes a group of people and a bit of work. Many hands.
I am a proud member of the leadership team. Courtney and James have been terrific to work with. I am happy to be in Santa Fe with them to advocate for this cause. Food security is very important to us as a community. This work we are doing is going to help so many people. We won't rest until we turn the food desert into a food forest! We need support from our legislators so we can begin providing healthy and organic food for everyone in Otero County. I am proud to be part of With Many Hands.
This is such a powerful story about the power of gardening and community! Gardens can be the places where changes are planted and grow.