This study is an ethnographic approach to studying urban agriculture in New Orleans, Louisiana to determine barriers to participation in community gardens by residents living in proximity to a community garden. I conducted a comparative case study of three community gardens in different neighborhoods and varying operational structure to understand how they approach engaging local residents in these gardens. This is based on discourse surrounding the unequal distribution of benefits, mediated by socioeconomic status (SES). My study uses a multimethodological approach consisting of 1) an inventory on Google Maps of actively operating, publicly accessible gardens in Orleans Parish; 2) a comparative case study between three of these community gardens involving a semi-structured interview with each primary garden leader and door-to-door semi-structured surveys of residents living within a 1/5 mile radius of each garden of study; and 3) interviews with local urban agriculture and/or food justice leaders. From the data collected, I am able to make recommendations to community gardens on how to better reach residents in their neighborhoods and contextualize findings using the urban ag/food justice leader interviews to complete my depiction on the potential positionality of community gardens in approaches to mitigate food apartheid.