{"id":3395,"date":"2026-08-13T10:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/?p=3395"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T16:04:16","slug":"growing-food-and-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/growing-food-and-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Food and Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Bobby Wilson, owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, examines corn he harvested at Metro Atlanta Urban Farms in College Park, Georgia, August 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Wilson, owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, holds a piece of okra while teaching its health benefits to community members and volunteers in College Park, Georgia, on August 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Wilson, owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, holds a piece of okra while teaching its health benefits to community members and volunteers in College Park, Georgia, on August 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Wilson (center), owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, speaks with volunteer Key (right), while Diane Hanna, of Clayton County Georgia (left), searches for cucumbers at Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, August 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Wilson, owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, shows a cucumber harvested from his farm in College Park, Georgia, August 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Wilson, owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, teaches volunteers and community members about the health benefits of okra at his farm in College Park, Georgia, August 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bobby Wilson, owner of Metro Atlanta Urban Farms, cuts open okra while teaching volunteers and community members on its health benefits in College Park, Georgia, on Aug. 11, 2026. BRIAN NELSON\/ NABJ Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Brian Nelson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nestled in the heart of College Park, Bobby Wilson\u2019s Metro Atlanta Urban Farms has provided a hub for urban farming and environmentalism for 40 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 76, Wilson \u2014 or Mr. Bobby as the community calls him \u2014 spends his days from dawn till dusk planting, harvesting and teaching. His goal isn\u2019t just to provide community members with fresh produce but also to teach them how to grow their own crops in their own backyards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few months, working on the farm has been brutal due to the intense heat, which makes every task exhausting, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been an unusual year for us in terms of weather,\u201d Wilson said, \u201cespecially during the dog days of summer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson perseveres despite the climate, providing lessons and leaving an impact in his College Park community with a goal of feeding over 250,000 people in the Metro Atlanta area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuts to federal funding have introduced additional challenges, leading Wilson to stop paying his own salary. But Wilson holds on to the hope that one day he will again see the fruits of his labor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the work is not about me,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt’s about the generation that will follow me. And so we’re going to do all we can to keep it going.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nestled in the heart of College Park, Bobby Wilson\u2019s Metro Atlanta Urban Farms has provided a hub for urban farming and environmentalism for 40 years.\u00a0 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nab-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3404,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395\/revisions\/3404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabjmonitor.com\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}