Urban garden in Rio feeds hundreds of families in former ‘crackland’

A drone picture of a person working at the Horta de Manguinhos (Manguinhos vegetable garden), the biggest urban garden in Latin America, part of the project "Hortas Cariocas" developed by Rio de Janeiro's Environment Secretary in the Manguinhos favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 1, 2021. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The Manguinhos neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, a slum where addicts once smoked crack and residents dumped trash, has been transformed into a community vegetable garden that now feeds some 800 families struggling with rampant food inflation.

The urban garden covers the area of four soccer fields, according to Rio de Janeiro's "Hortas Cariocas" program coordinators, making it one of the largest of its kind in Latin America.