The community of West End is one of Alabama’s largest, but most challenged, neighborhoods. West End is located in one of Birmingham’s food deserts, where cheap, unhealthy food is plentiful but access to nutritious food is scarce. Many West End residents lack transportation, and almost half of West End residents live below the poverty line.
 

As program director of West End Community Gardens, Ama Shambulia is helping nourish the bodies, minds and spirits of the people of West End. “Our mission is to grow food and to grow community,” Ama says. “West End community is the largest and most challenged in the state, so our vision of the garden is just to inspire and educate, and institute not only this kind of program but to reawaken the idea that it only takes a small group of people to take something and turn it into something beautiful.”
 

Since its inception in 2008, the Gardens have grown by leaps and bounds -- and through the hard work of community residents an volunteers from all over the city. “We just acquired two lots this year, but again everything we do is labor intensive,” Ama says. “As it stands it’s manageable. We’re mindful of not expanding beyond our capacity because we are a program under a non-profit and we do have budgetary constraints and human constraints. One thing we’re proud of so far is that we’ve been able to manage our sites so that they’re aesthetically pleasing, so we want to keep continue working in that spirit.”
 

As a master chef, Ama reaps the benefits of access to fresh, organic produce. “I eat a mostly plant-based diet,” she says, “And I love everything. My favorite vegetable is okra, which we have in abundance in the garden. I love it boiled, sauteed, raw. I pick it straight from the garden and munch on it.”
 

Cooking good food has always been an integral part of Ama’s life. “I’ve been cooking since I was 9 years old,” she says. “My grandmother was an excellent cook, as was my mom. The food they cooked was very simple but it was always very flavorful, so I developed a love for good, clean food at a very early age.” Ama laughs and says, “I don’t know how we all learned to cook! We weren’t allowed in the kitchen, so I started sneaking in the kitchen at an early age.”
 

Ama shares her recipes and new ways to cook old favorites at the much-anticipated annual Collard Greens Cook-Off. “My favorite meal is collard greens and corn bread,” Ama says. “Of course in the traditional Southern way among African-Americans, we cook them from sun up to sundown, with the whole pig in the pot, and that diminishes the health properties. So the idea behind the cook-off was to share some different ways of cooking collard greens that nourish.”
 

To Ama, growing food is a sacred interaction. “It’s more of a personal perspective,” she says, “and that comes from just being continuously in awe and fascinated that you can plant a seed and it gives you back 100 times over from that one seed. I think most of us take food for granted, but from actually doing the work in a very hands-on way -- we make our own soil, we make the garden beds, we water by hand, we cultivate by hand -- and I think it really grounds you in terms of that whole process of food. It’s so essential to our existence, the sun, the water, the soil and the food that we get form that whole interaction. I consider it to be high privilege to grow food.”

The 3rd Annual Collard Green Cook Off and Wellness Expo is Saturday, October 15 from noon to 5 pm at Urban Ministries, 1229 Cotton Avenue, S.W. Enjoy collards and cornbread, massage, yoga, music and more!

West End Community Gardens is located at the intersection of 12th Street SW and McMillan Avenue, Birmingham, AL 35211.