WASHINGTON, D.C — Anita Adalja was working in Brooklyn, N.Y., as a social worker when a rooftop garden meant to help her patients set her on a path that merged her career with agriculture and landed her in Washington, D.C.

A week ago today, Adalja, who graduated from Butler High School in 2000, was honored by the White House as a Champion of Change at a ceremony with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. She was one of 12 honorees named as part of the focus on sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.

Adalja is the farm manager at Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, which sells naturally grown produce in areas of Washington, D.C., through a mobile farmers market program.

The farm focuses on selling produce in neighborhoods that have little or no access to high quality produce and also hosts other programs such as an initiative that trains military veterans for careers in agriculture.

Adalja called working at Arcadia an eye-opening experience. It's the culmination of a years-long journey for her and something that's exposed gaps and shortfalls in a sustainable farming movement that is still finding its own feet.

“There's still a lot of education and understanding that needs to happen,” she said.

She said it is a struggle to attract people to the farm markets versus supermarkets.

Adalja served an apprenticeship in Santa Cruz, Calif., and worked at a produce farm in Gibsonia, where she met a woman whose work she had followed for years, before moving to Washington, D.C.

Adalja said Margaret Schlass of One Woman Farm in Gibsonia is her biggest role model. Adalja worked for Schlass in 2014 and called her apprenticeship at One Woman Farm a defining moment for her.

It helped Adalja, who works at a nonprofit operation, explore the differences between nonprofit and for-profit farming and connected her with a strong, female leader in agriculture.

“It was a physically and emotionally challenging job, but it was so important,” Adalja said. “She (Schlass) has basically carved out her place in Western Pennsylvania and nationwide. She's brilliant.”

Schlass called Adalja “a gem” who deserved to be recognized for her work and dedication to sustainable agriculture.

“She really is exceptional (and) incredibly thoughtful in everything that she does,” Schlass said. “She's an invaluable asset to the community she serves.”

Moving from One Woman to Arcadia put Adalja in a smaller farming operation with a specific goal and reinforced her desire to focus on nonprofit work aimed at communities that struggle to gain access to good or high-quality food.

Arcadia uses grant funding to match customers' spending and help make high quality produce more accessible to people on fixed incomes.

“That's had a tremendous impact on making this food accessible and affordable to people on a fixed budget,” she said.

Adalja said the challenge is widening the scope of a movement she sees as primarily focused on the Washington, D.C., area.

“It needs to be culturally relevant and affordable in a way that, if you're on a fixed income, farm fresh produce is something that's possible,” she said. “The challenge is education and access.”

Schlass, whose farm serves the Pittsburgh area, agreed. She said Western Pennsylvania is an area of the country that has lagged behind cities along the East Coast, which have been quick to welcome sustainable agriculture initiatives. It's unclear to farmers like Schlass whether that reticence is cultural or because of a lack of consumer education.

Adalja's mother, Varsha Mehta, said her daughter's goal has always been to make a difference for struggling or disadvantaged communities.

“She's always been interested in helping people and takes a lot of pride in that,” Mehta said.

Mehta and Adalja's father, Ashock Adalja, are both physicians who live in Penn Township.

Mehta can remember her daughter — the youngest of three children — always being interested in the family's garden as a child and proving headstrong and inquisitive.

“She has always been unique and different; very independent,” Mehta said. “She's a very hardworking and dedicated person.”

As a social worker in Brooklyn, Mehta said, her daughter was merging mental health and food support services long before taking the leap to full-time farming. Adalja's work founding a rooftop garden and teaching patients how to farm in the city presaged a full-blown career shift into agriculture — a shift Mehta said did not surprise her family.

“She's always been really concerned about low income families and other challenged communities who are unable to get their hands on fresh, healthy food, and she felt that was something she could do and help them,” Mehta said.