By Reginald Williams,
Special to the AFRO
On 54th St. and Dix Street in the Northeast region of Washington, D.C., Muhsin Boeluther Umar has repurposed a parcel of densely populated land solely for the purpose of transforming lives. Embedded with a passion for investing in his community, Umar mentors a community of youth and senior citizens using urban farming technologies.
Umar, the founder of Hustlaz 2 Harvesters, cultivates urban agricultural gardens. The agrarian activist has dedicated the past 20 years in sowing seeds of hope within the District’s Ward 7. Employing an applied research approach model to address the absence of nutritionally dense food, Umar’s mission is to revitalize the lives of his community by revitalizing its land.
“We’re growing out of poverty,” explained Umar, the 58-year-old Washingtonian. “We’re showing these youngins how to transform their land and their lives.”
Hustlaz 2 Harvesters is a social impact enterprise providing experiential, vocational, and educational opportunities for youth, underserved residents, and the ex-incarcerated.
Located along the Watts Branch corridor of Washington, D.C., Umar educates the residents and visitors in the art of growing fruits and vegetables on a soil-less farming system using aquaponics, hydroponics, and aeroponics.
In a spirit that mirrors that of civil and human rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., Umar impacts community poverty by implementing initiatives that seed the economic equality that King fought for. Umar combats poverty by growing sustainable food and nourishing the spirits of a community too often traumatized. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and vegetables such as sorrel represent some of the products grown on Dix Street.
Umar, who spent 13 years in prison on a 48-to-life sentence, is also the founder of Senior Keepers Foundation, a veteran and returning citizen-led community-based 501(c)(3). He is well-versed in how the people of his community, too often misunderstood, are devalued, dismissed, and disenfranchised. The foundation’s mission is to deliver programming that addresses the needs of an intergenerational community feeling the wrath of being socially disadvantaged.
Reginald Williams, the author of “A Marginalized Voice: Devalued, Dismissed, Disenfranchised & Demonized” writes on Black men and Holistic Health concerns. Please email bookreggie@reginaldwilliams.org or visit amvonlinestore.com for more information.
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