Public Health Alum Uses Gardening Expertise to Help Address Arkansas’ Food Access Issues

By Kev' Moye

Entire communities having little — or no — access to fresh, healthy foods is a major issue in Arkansas.

There are a multitude of nonprofits, ministries, corporations and citizens working to solve the problem. Jimmy Parks, Dr.PH, an alum of the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, is part of a network of people who are teaching and learning about how to grow and share food.

“My community and my family are my life,” Parks said. “It’s not about serving groups or populations. It’s just that being part of a community sometimes involves practical activities that look like service.”

Parks is a self-taught farmer who works with people in many backyard gardens and urban farms in central Arkansas.

Public Health Alum Uses Gardening Expertise to Help Address Arkansas’ Food Access Issues

Jimmy Parks is a self-taught farmer – and an alum of the UAMS Boozman College of Public Health – who works in numerous gardens and urban farms in central Arkansas.