About Mo’Betta Green
Five Points, a historically Black neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, is home to Mo’Betta Green, a grassroots organization addressing food access in BIPOC communities. About 15 years ago, founder Beverly Grant saw an opportunity to combat the lack of fresh food and grocery stores through urban farming and healthy eating and living education programming to support her community. This is the work of Mo’Betta Green to this day.
The core of their work centers around their HEAL initiative, standing for Healthy Eating and Active Living. HEAL seeks to address this disparity in BIPOC neighborhoods by teaching participants about balanced nutrition and active living. This also includes an emphasis on supporting mental and emotional health.
Grant emphasizes how important it is to teach people about food from “seed to stomach” and how helping people understand that “farming, changing your diet” impacts one’s health and healing–especially when you are linked to providers that look like you.
In light of this, Mo’Betta Green has expanded their work to partner with other service organizations like churches, schools, and small businesses to better support their community members with necessary resources. In addition to farming and harvesting produce, the organization also hosts no-cost community farm dinners where anyone can gather to enjoy a nutritious meal.
Five Points: Historical Context & Juneteenth Celebration
A special piece of Mo’Betta Green’s mission is their focus on celebrating and supporting BIPOC communities and holidays. In particular, Juneteenth is an especially important holiday that Mo’ Betta Green supports.
For 15 years they have hosted a Juneteenth Freedom Celebration in the Five Points neighborhood. Grant, who grew up in the Five Points neighborhood, recalls how she became inspired to start the Juneteenth Freedom Celebration in part to commemorate the spirit of Juneteenth that she grew up with—an event dedicated to community, connections, camaraderie, and sharing food.
She shares, “I wanted to leverage freedom to talk about our health, because we’re not free if we’re not healthy,” adding that Juneteenth seemed like the perfect day to launch that—a time to inspire and connect with the hundreds of people who flock to Five Points on that historic day each year.
The celebration has a little something for everyone, from youth performances to community highlights to local vendors and bands. Stop by Charles Cousins Plaza in Five Points on June 14th and 15th to support the event and celebrate Juneteenth.
If you are local to Denver, learn more about the event and Mo’Betta Green here.
View other Juneteenth celebrations hosted by our partners here.
