On a breezy January afternoon, dozens of watermelon lined the back of the strip mall at the corner of West 77th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard in Hyde Park. The striped green orbs were splayed over the asphalt, a verdant glimpse of the summer season in the middle of winter.
To get them there, Imani Diggs drove a total of 43 hours from Los Angeles to Florida, and back. It’s a trip he made four times over the course of the month, each time returning with thousands of pounds of watermelon.
“I made a connection with some Black farmers out in Florida in December, and I drove there to pick up the watermelons,” he said. “Just so people can continue their fruit fasts and stuff like that. People were telling me ‘I’m 10 days deep into a fruit fast and you’re saving my life right now.’”
Diggs drives around the country, picking up seeded watermelons from farms in one state and selling them in another. He’s sourcing watermelons from farmers in Florida, Mexico and Houston. Over the last couple of years, he’s delivered watermelon to Las Vegas, and all over California, including Richmond, Woodland Hills and Orange County. Now, he’s selling watermelons, juice and other produce from his first storefront, called Imani Gardens, inside the Crenshaw Food Hub…