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Hiroki Koga: The sweet future of vertical farming | TED Talk

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Can strawberries grown inside a building taste sweeter than those grown in a field? Farming entrepreneur Hiroki Koga explores how his team is combining solar-powered vertical farms with AI, robotics and indoor bee colonies to grow delicious strawberries year-round — and how this practice, if widely adopted, could deliver a harvest of benefits for the future of food.

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Good companion to book by Tony Hillery, Harlem Grown

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Farmers Markets and Food Bucks

Farmers markets are essential retail businesses and have remained open throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Visit thefoodtrustmarkets.org for a complete listing of weekly market dates and locations, as well as COVID safety information, preorder and pre-purchase processes.

The Food Trust's Food Bucks network provides a crucial safety net for families relying on SNAP, so we continue distributing these coupons at farmers markets, grocery stores and corner stores. To minimize person-to-person contact and travel for SNAP shoppers, we are working with a local healthcare partner to mail Food Bucks Rx (fruit and vegetable prescriptions) to patients.

Nutrition Education

With the closure of schools and community sites last year, The Food Trust's nutrition education team shifted to a virtual learning model. Our Online Learning Hub - which now supplements in-person nutrition education at our sites - serves as a resource center for caregivers, families, educators and individuals, and includes original video content, healthy recipes, recommended physical activities, cooking demonstrations, shopping tips and much more. The site is updated regularly with fresh content to help families active and nourished during these challenging times.

Healthy Food Retail and Fresh Food Financing

Corner stores and other food retailers faced unprecedented hardships as essential businesses operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the generosity and flexibility of our funders, in 2020-21, we repurposed grant dollars to provide immediate relief to stores. The Food Trust is offering local corner store owners and other small food retailers the opportunity to apply for mini-grants, which will help stores in low-income communities to stay open or reopen, and assist with immediate general operating needs to ensure the safety of their communities and staff.

In addition, store owners are being encouraged to apply to the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (PA FFFI), a statewide funding program managed by The Food Trust, to secure an additional one-time grant and/or loan to increase access to healthy, affordable food in lower-income and underserved communities. The Food Trust is supporting partners with similar grocery financing programs in Massachusetts, Kansas, the Deep South and at the federal level.

Our staff are now offering fully remote support for food retailers, as well. We connect with business owners on a regular basis via phone calls and group text messages to share important updates and resources. Staff are also supporting partners to build healthy food retail strategies through COVID-19, providing interactive webinars and training about how to leverage resources and relationships to support stores during these challenging times.

If you're interested in collaborating with The Food Trust on virtual programming, community-based food access or other initiatives, please reach out to .

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Farmers Markets and Food Bucks Farmers markets are essential retail businesses and have remained open throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Visit thefoodtrustmarkets.org for a complete listing of weekly market dates and locations, as well as COVID safety information, preorder and pre-purchase processes.

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Soil Generation is Saving Community Gardens in Philadelphia
The coalition of Black and brown urban farmers and gardeners is a voice for social justice in 'America's Garden Capital.'

A New Crop of Food Justice Fellowships Seed Future Leaders
Castanea and Seeding Power fellows are addressing racial inequities within the food system.

300 California Communities Can't Drink From the Tap. Will More Money Make a Difference?
A new fund created to direct cap-and-trade dollars to communities could bring clean drinking water to the state's agricultural communities.

Environmental Defenders-Often Fighting Agribusiness-Are Being Violently Silenced Around the World
A new report details how agribusiness-especially soy, sugar, palm oil, and beef production-was the second deadliest sector for people standing up for the environment and their lands.

Meet the Women Building Political Power for Farmworkers in the Central Valley
In Farm Country, the mother-daughter team behind El Quinto Sol de America have spent the last 15 years helping its poorest residents advocate for the health and safety of their communities.

Bringing Fresh Produce to LA's Corner Stores Alone Won't Solve Food Inequality. But it's a Start.
Corner store conversion projects not only aim to combat food insecurity, but also recognize the tremendous influence these stores have on neighborhoods.

The Woman Leading the Way for Urban Farming in the Nation's Capital
Gail Taylor, 'The People's Farmer,' feeds her community with Three Part Harmony Farm and helped pass legislation to benefit urban farmers in D.C.

The Farmworkers Who Pick Your Food Don't Get Paid Overtime
Washington could be the third state to require overtime pay, leveling the playing field nationwide for 'second-class workers.'

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Christine Herman and Dana Cronin, Harvest Public Media

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Kate S. Petersen, Environmental Health News

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Our Best Food Justice Stories of 2019 | Civil Eats

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Soil Generation is Saving Community Gardens in Philadelphia The coalition of Black and brown urban farmers and gardeners is a voice for social justice in 'America's Garden Capital.' A New Crop of Food Justice Fellowships Seed Future Leaders Castanea and Seeding Power fellows are addressing racial inequities within the food system.

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Name: Will Allen
Theme: Urban Agriculture
Occupation: CEO and Owner of Growing Power
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Website: http://www.growingpower.org/
Favorite Food: Okra
Favorite Food Fact: Growing Power is the last remaining farm and greenhouse operation in the City of Milwaukee.
"I've traveled the country and have talked to folks from universities to communities, and people WANT to be a part of this. They really believe and they're passionate about their food, because that's the one thing that connects all of us. Everybody's gotta eat food."
Rebel Story

As the son of a sharecropper Will Allen has always appreciated the value of organic agriculture. After touring Europe as a professional basketball player he retired to Milwaukee where he returned to his roots and founded an urban farm; feeding and employing the youth in his community.

Q&A

What's wrong with the way we eat today in the U.S?
We have communities that they call food deserts. I don't necessarily like that term, but it's a void of food for many miles. It's important for the people in those communities to get involved because everybody really wants good food. I mean our kids tell us that all the time, when they eat good food they feel better, they act better, they behave; when they eat bad food, they misbehave and so forth. So, they know what good food is. It's a matter that they don't get it very often. They don't have access to it.

What can we do to make it right?
It's important that folks in those communities get involved from the very beginning of the planning their communities and so forth. That's kind of what it's all about - everything that we do as an organization is wrapped around social justice and to make sure that everybody has access to the same food. I don't just grow food for this community. We deliver to everybody and every community, regardless of the economic conditions.

When did you start urban farming and why?
Well, I've always done organic agriculture. We didn't call it organic back in the day, when I was growing up. We used chicken manure; we composted and spread it in the field, so I've always farmed that way. When I was 18 I left the farm to go away to college. I said, "Never again will I do this hard work. I'm going to go to college, get an education and play professional basketball." While I played in Europe, one of my teammate's family was involved in farming and I started hanging out with them. All of a sudden, I had this urge to grow food again. It must have been this hidden passion that I had. And that's all I wanted to do.

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Profile: Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power | Food Forward | PBS Food

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Name: Will Allen Theme: Urban Agriculture Occupation: CEO and Owner of Growing Power Location: Milwaukee, WI Website: http://www.growingpower.org/ Favorite Food: Okra Favorite Food Fact: Growing Power is the last remaining farm and greenhouse operation in the City of Milwaukee. "I've traveled the country and have talked to folks from universities to communities, and people WANT to be a part of this.

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This content is brought to you by GOOD, with support from IBM. Click here to read more stories from The Fact That Changed Everything series and here to read about other Figures of Progress.

* * * * * * * * * *

In 1993, when Will Allen bought the three-acre plot of land in Milwaukee that would later become Growing Power, he didn't know that he would be starting a food movement. In fact, his intentions were more for-profit than nonprofit. At the time, he was a successful salesman at Proctor & Gamble and was also operating a 100-acre farm in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, selling his produce to grocery stores and farmers markets.

The son of a sharecropper, Allen was itching to farm full-time and saw the new plot as a likely business opportunity. "There were no grocery stores in the area at that time, and as a business person, I thought, 'Location, location, location,'" recalls Allen. The plot, the last remaining farm and greenhouse in the city, was located in a "food desert" half a mile from a large housing project. He spent the first year fixing up the greenhouse and sold his goods out of one of the greenhouses on the plot.

Allen soon received a call from Milwaukee's Hunger Task Force, however, which changed his market-focused mindset and led to his founding of Growing Power. The director asked Allen for help teaching kids how to start an organic garden for the YWCA. After an article about the kids growing food under Allen's guidance was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the calls from non-profits started coming in. Along with a connection to the land and the yearning to farm, the desire to work with kids solidified his mission.

"It was part of my proposal to the city that I would to teach kids about how to grow food and about food systems-that was my other purpose," says Allen. "Because when you educate kids, they take that back to their homes and tell their parents." In effect, Allen had sown the seeds for altering the existing food system, especially in inner cities, and established a way to push for food and social justice. "Everyone, regardless of economic status, should be able to access healthy, nutritious foods," says Allen.

In its nineteenth year, Growing Power continues to thrive in its mission. Its three-acre Community Food Center in downtown Milwaukee houses an integrated food growing system that includes 150 different types of crops as well as an aquaponics system, which pumps dirty water from the Center's fish tanks to beds of watercress, which in turn filter the water for the fish. The center also contains an apiary with beehives, as well as other livestock, such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and goats.

All told, the foods produced by Growing Power feed about 10,000 people in Milwaukee. The organization is also in the middle of putting 100 acres of greenhouses in and around southeast Wisconsin, Madison, and Chicago, to add to the existing 23-farm, 200-acre food production sites. Allen's business-savvy also is paying off: "We're different than other nonprofits-over 50 percent of our profits come from selling our goods and services, we have over 40 different income streams, and we are not just dependent on grants. Not many nonprofits can say that," Allen says.

Growing Power may have done a lot to change the dynamics of local food in Milwaukee and neighboring areas, but for Allen it's not enough. "We want to increase the amount of local food consumed in Milwaukee from one percent to 10 percent or more," says Allen. The ultimate goal, in addition to showing that fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods can be produced in an urban setting, is creating an infrastructure that can be replicated. A three-year research project involving different types of agriculture systems, and the building of the five-story Growing Power Vertical Farm in Milwaukee will serve as helpful models.

"In the future, certain cities like New York, San Francisco, Vancouver that do not have a lot of horizontal land mass will have to learn how to grow food to sustain its people," says Allen. "Our goal is to build the first vertical farm so that we can study and quantify how we can produce food, so that others can do it on a larger scale."

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The Fact That Changed Everything: Will Allen and Growing Power Vertical Farm

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This content is brought to you by GOOD, with support from IBM. Click here to read more stories from The Fact That Changed Everything series and here to read about other Figures of Progress.

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Soul Fire Farm is committed to dismantling the oppressive structures that misguide our food system. Part of this work involves reconnecting youth to their innate belonging to land and restoring each person's rightful place of empowerment in the food system. We offer one-day educational workshops for youth and inter-generational groups.

Curriculum

The following are activities used at Soul Fire Farm to deepen young people's understanding of the food system. To the extent possible, we base our curriculum on research that shows that young people make healthy choices when they LOVE their community and natural world and when they see that their own POSITIVE ACTION makes a difference.

Before using any of this curriculum in your own program, please read our integrity guidelines.

Food Justice

Perspectives Walk : This activity reveals hidden assumptions about food, hunger, and justice.

Mama Earth

Organizing and Leadership

Build a Movement: Youth have the power to be agents of change in society. We can customize activities ranging including appreciative inquiry, consensus decision-making, meeting facilitation, talking to policymakers, community mapping, and organizing focus groups.

Youth Food Justice Pledge: a commitment to personal and community food sovereignty

Semester Long Curriculum
On sustainable agriculture based on case studies in southern Mexico. It is classroom-ready and can be used in its entirety or in part:
Reference Materials
Complete Seeds of Solidarity Curriculum
I just wanted to extend my gratitude to you, your staff, and everyone that made the work day possible. The kids have not stopped bragging about the work they did and the people that were surrounding them this past Saturday.
Leah was extremely patient and caring for every child, and structured the day perfectly. I could not have thought that the day would have been so much fun. Each child got so much out of the experience that we did not realize they would get when going to the farm.
Multiple kids had conversations about the farm's purpose on the way home. They discussed that at home sometimes they don't get fresh fruit, and that other people are even worse off than them. Leah really did a great job explaining each and every point she made.
For Akim*, he got so much one on one genuine attention that he has been craving for so long. He often times is spoken to very negatively because his behaviors can be so impulsive and intrusive. The older gentleman that was working on the garden bed, took him under his wing for the day. He gave Akim* so many caring messages and had a really good time with Akim*. It was very nice for all of us to see. Both he and Lyla* were very proud of their masonry work that they did with the men.
*pseudonyms Index of Food Project Activities
Growing Young Leaders from East New York Farms
Other Worlds Sowing Seeds of Justice Curriculum
Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism in the US Food System
Participant Thank You Note

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Soul Fire Farm is committed to dismantling the oppressive structures that misguide our food system. Part of this work involves reconnecting youth to their innate belonging to land and restoring each person's rightful place of empowerment in the food system. We offer one-day educational workshops for youth and inter-generational groups.

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This Hamilton group does urban gardening to help those in need. Here's how it's growing.

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"There's no direct access to fruits and vegetables, and the closest grocery store is well over half a mile a way, and limited transportation makes it hard for residents in that community to be able to get to grocery stores," she said. HUGS volunteers installed a 30-by-70-foot "hoop house" greenhouse on the property in August.

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Jessica Ramirez, a senior at Balboa High School in San Francisco, was learning about fats when she realized what she usually ate was not doing her much good. "I learned that the decisions I make about what I consume every day have a great impact on my body," says Ramirez.

Then last summer, she read Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, which hammered home everything she had learned in health class. "My entire view of the fast-food industry changed. I decided to entirely cut out fast food," says Ramirez. Now her goal is to get her family to eat more healthily. "I try to accompany my mom to buy groceries, so she will get more fruits and vegetables, and fewer chips and candies."

Ramirez may not know it, but her food choices have put her at the entry point of the food justice movement. The Brooklyn Food Coalition (BFC), an organization dedicated to creating a just and sustainable food system in Brooklyn, N.Y., defines three key elements of food justice: (1) everyone has a right to healthy, affordable food; (2) food systems should be sustainable; and (3) food workers have a right to fair working conditions.

Beatriz Beckford, BFC's director of organizing and policy and former school food organizing and policy coordinator, believes schools are ripe for the introduction of food justice practices. When young people eat vegetables they've studied in class or grown in a garden, share that experience at home and then request these vegetables at mealtime, says Beckford, they start to probe food's role in their world-just as Ramirez has begun to do.

Start in the Classroom

Introducing students to food justice principles begins in the classroom. Take Balboa High School health teacher Chris Pepper. His ninth-grade health curriculum couples nutrition basics with the study of food origins and preparation. He shows Food, Inc., which gets students talking about animal welfare, industrial agriculture and food workers' rights. His students also research prominent food justice leaders and organizations.

"Teaching about food justice helps make nutrition classes more engaging," says Pepper. "Learning the story of where our food comes from is really interesting, and it involves some real critical thinking about how our world works," he adds.

Vicente Manuel, a former student of Pepper's, has changed his food mindset. "I became aware of the unhealthy foods I was eating," says Manuel. "Now, instead of buying chips, I get fruit. I stopped buying fast food. I eat healthier cooked meals." In the true spirit of food justice, Manuel has urged his mother to change her eating habits, too. He says it's working. She buys more vegetables and fruit and stays away from frozen prepared meals and junk food.

School Gardens

National Gardening Association Education Program Coordinator Julie Parker-Dickinson is a proponent of teaching food justice through justice-oriented gardening programs. "School gardens," she says, "have the power to teach young people that access to food can be solved by taking action in one's own community."

Say "school garden," and some educators hear "expensive and difficult." But that's not necessarily true. School gardens can start in the simplest of ways.

Steve Ritz, currently dean of students at the Hyde Leadership K-12 Charter School in Bronx, N.Y., once accidentally started an indoor garden with his special education students. Ritz had set aside-and forgotten about-a box of daffodil and onion bulbs. When he rediscovered them, several had sprouted. His students forced the rest into bloom on the radiator.

"The kids couldn't believe it," says Ritz. "When they realized they could grow things, they wanted to start planting." Thanks to a lot of grow lights, Ritz's classroom at the South Bronx Discovery High School-where he was then teaching-turned into an indoor garden. It produced enough vegetables to contribute to the school cafeteria and send home to families. Students also sold produce at a local farmers market.

Ritz's class went on to build an edible green wall-a self-sufficient vertical garden. Several of his students later became certified in green wall technology, giving them access to employment in the emerging green economy. Students also carried their work into the community by helping a local gardening group clear out a park.

Ritz sees all of this as an excellent model of food justice. "Gardening led to healthy eating and to job development in a new green economy," he says.

Some school gardens, such as the Brooklyn, N.Y., Park Slope Elementary and Middle School's Green Zone, follow a more traditional school garden model. More than 800 elementary and middle school students-60 percent of whom live in poverty-grow herbs and vegetables for the school's lunchtime salad bar. A volunteer nutritionist leads healthy cooking classes, and there is an annual garden-to-school café event.

Anita Gasser-Bodzin, Park Slope's Green Zone co-chair, says the program has influenced the way students perceive food. Children first gain an understanding and appreciation of fresh produce that they grow. Then they begin to change their eating habits-in school, at home and beyond.

An understanding of gardening and nutrition is a great start, but school gardens have the potential to serve as a platform for discussions about more complex food-justice issues as well. The Florida-based Bay Haven School of Basics Plus elementary school, for example, uses its school garden project to address agricultural sustainability.

Rolf Hanson, elementary science teacher and coordinator of the Bay Haven garden project, says students use EarthBoxes-sub-irrigated planters that use less water and increase yield-to study issues such as water conservation, organic- vs. petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticide-free gardening and the benefits of locally grown food. The gardening project has changed children's relationship with food. Hanson says his students are excited about gardening, and they're also learning about deeper aspects of food justice.

Organizational Partners

Schools that don't have the capacity to address food justice issues independently can partner with food justice organizations. In this arrangement, schools benefit from outside expertise and resources, and organizations gain access to a youth audience and, sometimes, land on which to grow produce.

Mark Bowen, education and community outreach coordinator at the Montgomery, Ala.-based EAT South, works with children in schools, after-school programs and community-based organizations in poor areas of Montgomery whose residents face food challenges.

Bowen's goal is to introduce children to and excite them about health, nutrition and agricultural sustainability in ways that are mindful of their communities' socio-economic gaps, especially when it comes to the food they eat. "The more kids grow fresh produce," says Bowen, "the more likely they are, as they get older, to break the bad food cycle their parents are in."

In addition to his work with after-school programs, Bowen partners with community-based organizations and schools to model how organic gardening can be done with limited funds by developing gardens using materials that are readily available. (Tires make great planters.) At one elementary school, he helped construct raised beds and a water catchment system and planted fruit trees. He also trains teachers to develop standards-based lessons related to the subjects they teach.

Bowen strongly advises assessing programs to determine what students are learning about food and food systems and if their attitudes toward food are changing. Assessments of EAT South's efforts on the west side of Montgomery showed that students had made measureable gains in their understanding of food origins and the difference between healthy and unhealthy food.

Partnerships also work well in more urban settings. Bushwick Campus High School and EcoStation:NY teamed up to create the Bushwick Campus Farm in Brooklyn, NY. The school campus, located in an urban, high-poverty community with above-average rates of diabetes and minimal access to fresh produce in grocery stores and bodegas, is the site of EcoStation's two garden plots, a greenhouse and a water catchment shed.

Classes from the campus' four schools participate in the program, which is incorporated into each school's educational themes. Some students also participate in after-school farm activities, such as nutrition workshops, and in paid summer farm work.

Maggie Cheney, EcoStation's director of farms and education, says the program is committed to involving the entire school community. When students work at the farmers market, says Cheney, they talk with community members about food choices, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that apply to farmers market purchases, food subsidies and discounts on organic produce.

It Can Be Done

It's not hard for students to start exploring and experiencing food justice in school. From making a healthy snack to planting seeds in an indoor garden to watching a film about the agricultural industry, the goal is to get students engaged and excited. That's something a creative educator concerned about students' healthy futures can accomplish-even with very few resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jessica Ramirez, a senior at Balboa High School in San Francisco, was learning about fats when she realized what she usually ate was not doing her much good. "I learned that the decisions I make about what I consume every day have a great impact on my body," says Ramirez.

Then last summer, she read Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, which hammered home everything she had learned in health class. "My entire view of the fast-food industry changed. I decided to entirely cut out fast food," says Ramirez. Now her goal is to get her family to eat more healthily. "I try to accompany my mom to buy groceries, so she will get more fruits and vegetables, and fewer chips and candies."

Ramirez may not know it, but her food choices have put her at the entry point of the food justice movement. The Brooklyn Food Coalition (BFC), an organization dedicated to creating a just and sustainable food system in Brooklyn, N.Y., defines three key elements of food justice: (1) everyone has a right to healthy, affordable food; (2) food systems should be sustainable; and (3) food workers have a right to fair working conditions.

Beatriz Beckford, BFC's director of organizing and policy and former school food organizing and policy coordinator, believes schools are ripe for the introduction of food justice practices. When young people eat vegetables they've studied in class or grown in a garden, share that experience at home and then request these vegetables at mealtime, says Beckford, they start to probe food's role in their world-just as Ramirez has begun to do.

Start in the Classroom

Introducing students to food justice principles begins in the classroom. Take Balboa High School health teacher Chris Pepper. His ninth-grade health curriculum couples nutrition basics with the study of food origins and preparation. He shows Food, Inc., which gets students talking about animal welfare, industrial agriculture and food workers' rights. His students also research prominent food justice leaders and organizations.

"Teaching about food justice helps make nutrition classes more engaging," says Pepper. "Learning the story of where our food comes from is really interesting, and it involves some real critical thinking about how our world works," he adds.

Vicente Manuel, a former student of Pepper's, has changed his food mindset. "I became aware of the unhealthy foods I was eating," says Manuel. "Now, instead of buying chips, I get fruit. I stopped buying fast food. I eat healthier cooked meals." In the true spirit of food justice, Manuel has urged his mother to change her eating habits, too. He says it's working. She buys more vegetables and fruit and stays away from frozen prepared meals and junk food.

School Gardens

National Gardening Association Education Program Coordinator Julie Parker-Dickinson is a proponent of teaching food justice through justice-oriented gardening programs. "School gardens," she says, "have the power to teach young people that access to food can be solved by taking action in one's own community."

Say "school garden," and some educators hear "expensive and difficult." But that's not necessarily true. School gardens can start in the simplest of ways.

Steve Ritz, currently dean of students at the Hyde Leadership K-12 Charter School in Bronx, N.Y., once accidentally started an indoor garden with his special education students. Ritz had set aside-and forgotten about-a box of daffodil and onion bulbs. When he rediscovered them, several had sprouted. His students forced the rest into bloom on the radiator.

"The kids couldn't believe it," says Ritz. "When they realized they could grow things, they wanted to start planting." Thanks to a lot of grow lights, Ritz's classroom at the South Bronx Discovery High School-where he was then teaching-turned into an indoor garden. It produced enough vegetables to contribute to the school cafeteria and send home to families. Students also sold produce at a local farmers market.

Ritz's class went on to build an edible green wall-a self-sufficient vertical garden. Several of his students later became certified in green wall technology, giving them access to employment in the emerging green economy. Students also carried their work into the community by helping a local gardening group clear out a park.

Ritz sees all of this as an excellent model of food justice. "Gardening led to healthy eating and to job development in a new green economy," he says.

Some school gardens, such as the Brooklyn, N.Y., Park Slope Elementary and Middle School's Green Zone, follow a more traditional school garden model. More than 800 elementary and middle school students-60 percent of whom live in poverty-grow herbs and vegetables for the school's lunchtime salad bar. A volunteer nutritionist leads healthy cooking classes, and there is an annual garden-to-school café event.

Anita Gasser-Bodzin, Park Slope's Green Zone co-chair, says the program has influenced the way students perceive food. Children first gain an understanding and appreciation of fresh produce that they grow. Then they begin to change their eating habits-in school, at home and beyond.

An understanding of gardening and nutrition is a great start, but school gardens have the potential to serve as a platform for discussions about more complex food-justice issues as well. The Florida-based Bay Haven School of Basics Plus elementary school, for example, uses its school garden project to address agricultural sustainability.

Rolf Hanson, elementary science teacher and coordinator of the Bay Haven garden project, says students use EarthBoxes-sub-irrigated planters that use less water and increase yield-to study issues such as water conservation, organic- vs. petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticide-free gardening and the benefits of locally grown food. The gardening project has changed children's relationship with food. Hanson says his students are excited about gardening, and they're also learning about deeper aspects of food justice.

Organizational Partners

Schools that don't have the capacity to address food justice issues independently can partner with food justice organizations. In this arrangement, schools benefit from outside expertise and resources, and organizations gain access to a youth audience and, sometimes, land on which to grow produce.

Mark Bowen, education and community outreach coordinator at the Montgomery, Ala.-based EAT South, works with children in schools, after-school programs and community-based organizations in poor areas of Montgomery whose residents face food challenges.

Bowen's goal is to introduce children to and excite them about health, nutrition and agricultural sustainability in ways that are mindful of their communities' socio-economic gaps, especially when it comes to the food they eat. "The more kids grow fresh produce," says Bowen, "the more likely they are, as they get older, to break the bad food cycle their parents are in."

In addition to his work with after-school programs, Bowen partners with community-based organizations and schools to model how organic gardening can be done with limited funds by developing gardens using materials that are readily available. (Tires make great planters.) At one elementary school, he helped construct raised beds and a water catchment system and planted fruit trees. He also trains teachers to develop standards-based lessons related to the subjects they teach.

Bowen strongly advises assessing programs to determine what students are learning about food and food systems and if their attitudes toward food are changing. Assessments of EAT South's efforts on the west side of Montgomery showed that students had made measureable gains in their understanding of food origins and the difference between healthy and unhealthy food.

Partnerships also work well in more urban settings. Bushwick Campus High School and EcoStation:NY teamed up to create the Bushwick Campus Farm in Brooklyn, NY. The school campus, located in an urban, high-poverty community with above-average rates of diabetes and minimal access to fresh produce in grocery stores and bodegas, is the site of EcoStation's two garden plots, a greenhouse and a water catchment shed.

Classes from the campus' four schools participate in the program, which is incorporated into each school's educational themes. Some students also participate in after-school farm activities, such as nutrition workshops, and in paid summer farm work.

Maggie Cheney, EcoStation's director of farms and education, says the program is committed to involving the entire school community. When students work at the farmers market, says Cheney, they talk with community members about food choices, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that apply to farmers market purchases, food subsidies and discounts on organic produce.

It Can Be Done

It's not hard for students to start exploring and experiencing food justice in school. From making a healthy snack to planting seeds in an indoor garden to watching a film about the agricultural industry, the goal is to get students engaged and excited. That's something a creative educator concerned about students' healthy futures can accomplish-even with very few resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Across Marin and throughout the country, free and reduced-cost school meal programs significantly decrease the incidence of childhood hunger. Yet too often, food served in school cafeterias is prepackaged and processed, lacking in essential vitamins and nutrients. The founder of Conscious Kitchen, Judi Shils, has made it her mission to change that. She and the team at Conscious Kitchen believe that access to fresh and healthy food should be a right, not a privilege.

A pilot program of the Sausalito-based nonprofit Turning Green, Conscious Kitchen began transforming the traditional school meal in 2013 at Marin City's Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy. Although Marin County is known for organic farms and ethical food purveyors, an alarming number of Marin City children experience food insecurity. Food received through Bayside's meal program is essential in helping children grow up healthy and strong, and stay active and engaged in school. So Conscious Kitchen set out to ensure that the meals received by Bayside students were chef-prepared and scratch-cooked, made with fresh, local, organic, seasonal and nutritious ingredients.

The team at Conscious Kitchen understood that in order for their model to be adopted in under-resourced schools, they would have to demonstrate the economic feasibility of the program. With the help of Chef Justin Everett of Cavallo Point Lodge and Good Earth Natural Foods, the team was able to show that organic, healthy and delicious food could be prepared at a sustainable price point of less than $5 per meal. That sealed the deal, and Conscious Kitchen has been providing children from Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy with breakfast and lunch ever since. The program has proven to be so successful that Conscious Kitchen now provides school meals to neighboring Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito as well, forming the nation's first 100% organic, non-GMO school district.

Organic, chef-prepared Conscious Kitchen school meals, featuring locally grown broccoli, potatoes and Mindful Meats pasture-raised chicken drumsticks, await final packaging at Marin City's Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy.

Hoping to use the pop-up model to initiate similar programs at schools throughout the Bay Area and around the country, Conscious Kitchen was just building momentum when COVID-19 prompted school closures. As the team strategized how they would continue to provide Marin children with healthy meals, it became clear that they had an opportunity to help nourish the entire community in this moment of crisis. Through a partnership with World Central Kitchen, a national hunger-relief nonprofit based in Washington D.C., Conscious Kitchen has worked quickly over the last four months to expand their meal program. Utilizing satellite kitchens and volunteer support, the team has prepared and distributed roughly 1,300 meals a day to children, seniors, individuals and families in Marin City and San Rafael.

But Conscious Kitchen didn't stop there. For Judi, food justice is about every link in the food supply chain. She believes that each link should improve, not harm, health, hunger, soil and the environment. So when the coronavirus began to disrupt the food chain for local organic farmers, Conscious Kitchen found a way to support them, too.

Partnering with Tomatero Organic Farm in Watsonville, Conscious Kitchen launched a Buy One, Give One farm box program, donating a bounty of fresh, organic vegetables to a family in need for every farm box purchase. Even better? You can now add Nicasio Valley Cheese Company and Tomales Farmstead Creamery cheeses, both produced on MALT-protected farmland, to your Conscious Kitchen farm box.

The Conscious Kitchen Buy One, Give One farm box includes seasonal produce sourced from local farms.

You can make an order today to support MALTed producers and local farms, and help nourish families and seniors in Marin.

Want to learn more about MALT's partnerships? Read on.

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Conscious Kitchen: Supporting Food Justice in Marin County - Marin Agricultural Land Trust

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Across Marin and throughout the country, free and reduced-cost school meal programs significantly decrease the incidence of childhood hunger. Yet too often, food served in school cafeterias is prepackaged and processed, lacking in essential vitamins and nutrients. The founder of Conscious Kitchen, Judi Shils, has made it her mission to change that.

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The Free Farm Stand, an all-volunteer run project of the No Penny Opera (a tax exempt organization) is about sharing the wealth of urban farms and gardens.

We strive to attain the following goals:

*help make locally grown, fresh and nutritious organic produce accessible to all, especially those families and individuals on low-incomes and tight budgets.

*help empower people who have the space to grow their own food and become more self-reliant.

*promote good nutrition and health

What we do:

We grow as much food as can in San Francisco and distribute it for free at our Free Farm Stand. We act as a gathering place in the Mission to encourage community growth and involvement. This effort revolves mostly around gathering surplus food from neighborhood gardens, various farmer's markets, community gardens, public and private fruit trees, and hosting a space where this bounty can be shared with all.

The Free Farm Stand also gives away plant starts grown down the street at the All in Common Garden. It is open to visitors the same hours as the Free farm Stand on Sundays and also on Tuesdays from 1-3pm.

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The Free Farm Stand, an all-volunteer run project of the No Penny Opera (a tax exempt organization) is about sharing the wealth of urban farms and gardens. We strive to attain the following goals: *help make locally grown, fresh and nutritious organic produce accessible to all, especially those families and individuals on low-incomes and tight budgets.

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--- Jessica Griffin / File Photograph

A group of Bhutanese refugees in South Philly cultivate a garden of Thai roselle, the fruit of which can be used to make a beverage. The Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild recently reported an "overwhelming demand" for beginner classes for beekeeping. And in Grays Ferry, seniors and youth tend an 80-year-old community garden.

Those are just a few examples of Philadelphia's thriving urban farm and garden culture, featuring projects often started by African American residents, immigrants, and refugees. It's a trend officials approve of and want to encourage. But many plots are on vacant land that owners might not have given permission to use, might be owned by the city, or might even be full of contaminated soil, a legacy of past industry.

So officials want to create a plan to coordinate, promote, and grow urban agriculture while ensuring it is practiced safely and within acceptable areas.

"This isn't about regulations," said Christine Knapp, director of the city's Office of Sustainability. "Rather, it's more a matter of coordinating or supporting the appropriate ways these gardens and farms should exist and could exist and serve a role in the city.

"We want to have a deep community engagement process," Knapp continued. "If you want to garden or farm, let us help you figure out how to do that in the long term. Do you want to buy the land? Do you want it tested? So it's not an attempt to clamp down on the practice."

Jenny Greenberg, executive director of the Neighborhood Gardens Trust, said her organization supports the city's effort. Greenberg said community gardens and plots have already been lost to development.

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Many of the city's community gardens and farms were started on abandoned properties because neighbors sought to take control of the blight, Greenberg said. So they introduced communal green spaces that often last for years until the lots get sold at sheriff's sales or redeveloped. The city might be able to help community groups buy the land or keep legal access to it, she said.

"I think it's a great idea that the city is trying to take a comprehensive view on urban agriculture," Greenberg said. "There is so much redevelopment taking place."

The Urban Agriculture Plan will start with a $125,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to the nonprofit Mayor's Fund. The city will then use the money to hire a consultant to research the issue, reach out to residents to find out what they want, and make recommendations.

"A lot of farms and gardens are started by just a few neighbors getting together," Knapp said. "We don't know who they all are, or what they are producing. We want to understand what some of the barriers are and provide support because these farms and gardens really do serve an important role."

Zoning changes in 2012 made gardening and farming permissible activities on most land within the city. The law that created the Philadelphia Land Bank the following year cited urban agriculture as a priority.

As of 2016, the city knew of at least 470 gardens scattered across 600 parcels, according to the proposal for the plan. Almost half of the parcels are on publicly owned land. A third are on private land, which often was abandoned by owners who had stopped paying taxes.

Up to 150 plots are vulnerable to private or sheriff's sales and could be lost to the gardeners, who don't have the money to outbid developers, according to some estimates.

As the new proposal by the city notes, there is no existing direction, investment, or coordination of urban agriculture.

According to Land Bank data, there are 28,500 vacant lots within the city. And 14,800 properties with vacant or abandoned buildings on them. Residents sometimes begin cultivating lots after homes are razed. So, in all, the city has more than 43,000 potential lots that neighbors could turn into gardens or farms that may, or may not, fit in with a plan for use of the properties by a lien holder, developer, or the city.

The agriculture plan will help sort out which spaces are best suited for urban farms, and the least vulnerable to being sold. The city also might be able to identify which have contaminated soil, meaning crops would have to be grown in raised beds with fresh soil. The plan also could help gardeners connect with markets that share or sell produce. Currently, little is known about the overall scope of crops being grown.

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation would act as project manager of the plan, in coordination with the Office of Sustainability, Planning Commission, Department of Public Health, Department of Public Property, the Land Bank, and the Managing Director's Office.

The city is hosting a Q&A session April 2, from 6 to 9 p.m. at One Parkway Building, 15th and Arch St., 18th Floor, for those interested in applying to craft the plan. Questions can also be directed to mayorsfund@phila.gov and Elisa Ruse-Esposito at farmphilly@phila.gov by April 9.

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Philly's urban farming plan could include hundreds, possibly thousands, of vacant lots

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Philadelphia has a thriving urban farm and garden culture - a good thing officials say. But many of those plots are simply tilled on vacant land that owners might not have been given permission to use, or might even be owned by the city. So officials want to create an agricultural plan.

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Samuel's Food Gardens (Photo courtesy of Samuel S. T. Pressman)

Samuel S. T. Pressman had wanted to build a food garden on the rooftop of his Clinton Hill apartment for years. The artist and sculptor had lived on a farm when he was younger and had studied Sustainable Environmental Systems at Pratt. But in a city with a "time is money" mentality, he never found the right moment to start his passion project.

That changed when New York underwent a statewide Pause order in mid-March. Now, Samuel's Food Gardens is tackling the city's food insecurity problem by providing fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to community gardens that advocate for food security. "I wanted to explore what most people's living situation is here," Pressman said, "where they don't have any land and have hardly any outdoor space that they own, and how they can still be able to grow some food using a system that is designed to actually make it possible to grow more food than you think per square foot."

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns over the food supply chain began increasing nationwide as popular food items flew off the shelves and grocery store lines grew to alarming lengths. This panic, along with a sudden abundance of time and collective distress over going to crowded supermarkets, contributed to a surge in backyard gardens and private farming initiatives. Even as the apocalyptic anxiety began to settle down, the gardening craze didn't seem to stop. With at least 10 million more people unemployed in the United States compared to pre-Covid figures, feeding families continues to be at the top of everyone's priority list.

Samuel's Food Gardens (Photo courtesy of Samuel S. T. Pressman)

Despite its tiny living spaces and skyscrapers galore, NYC is no exception to the gardening trend. Residents like Pressman have begun to utilize spaces on rooftops, patios, and even the edges of classic Brooklyn-style buildings to create more green space in the area.

Having previously worked with Friends of Brook Park Community Garden in the Bronx and having designed and led construction for Newkirk Community Garden in central Brooklyn, Pressman has always found ways to support underserved communities and advocate for inclusive community food growing. He began Samuel's Food Gardens not to sell the food that he grows, but to continue his work with community gardens and help individuals with private gardening areas maximize their spaces and get the most out of their crops in the long term.

New Yorkers are engaging with food in new ways. That has led to a spike in produce sales at the three green roofs operated by Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, and an increased demand for their services designing, installing and maintaining private green spaces. "I think that there's, to some degree, a process of reconnecting with simple pleasures and when it comes to the kitchen, that means really high-quality, fresh ingredients that are good for you," said Anastasia Cole Plakias, the urban farm's co-founder and chief operating officer. "I think that there's this realization that supply chains have a role to play in our recovery here."

Brooklyn Grange (Photo courtesy of Anastasia Cole Plakias)

In its ten years of operation, Brooklyn Grange has sold over 400,000 pounds of produce through weekly farmers markets located in Sunset Park, Greenpoint, and Long Island City, a CSA program where people obtain the farm's harvest through a seasonal subscription plan, and a seed-to-plate initiative that provides food to local restaurants and retailers.

Cole Plakias says Brooklyn Grange was set to sell roughly 100,000 pounds of produce this year, but once restaurants began closing across the city and in-person events came to a halt, the farm's business model had to quickly shift away from restaurant crops and towards feeding and nourishing the community.

"We're seeing a lot of interest from people in having us convert their outdoor spaces to food-producing spaces, or more habitable green spaces," said Cole Plakias. "We're seeing a tremendous amount of interest in garden maintenance services because people are recognizing the value of urban green space."

The company has managed to secure multiple partnerships that not only keep their farms in business, but also keep restaurants open and ensure food accessibility. Tasmanian footwear company Blundstone funded a full season of produce donations and kept farmers and staff employed. To deliver emergency food relief, Brooklyn Grange partnered with Rethink (their Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors) and Food Issues Group, both organizations dedicated to providing equitable food systems in NYC and keeping restaurant workers employed, especially during a global pandemic.

With more New Yorkers cooking at home, the demand for fresh produce at farmers markets and through CSA programs has steadily increased during the pandemic, Cole Plakias says. Add to which, there has been a dramatic boost in demand for the farm's virtual farming and composting workshops.

There have been a variety of online learning opportunities for prospective gardeners in the city. GrowNYC, which has been teaching city folks how to maintain urban gardens for years, offers virtual classes, and the New York Botanical Garden began hosting virtual workshops after it closed in March (the garden is set to reopen on July 28).

Union Street Farm (Photo courtesy of Garrison Harward)

The Union Street Farm, near the corner of Union Street and Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights, also offers free, in-person gardening classes and open volunteering, giving local residents hands-on experience with growing and maintaining a full-functioning garden. "We'll do some tasks that need to be done in the garden and through that work, we talk about gardening," said Garrison Harward, who began his work at the Union Street Farm in 2016. "It's open for whatever anybody wants to learn."

Harward's love for gardening was influenced by his own family's garden in his California hometown. In 2010, as a sustainable agriculture volunteer for the Peace Corps in Senegal, he began investigating regenerative agriculture and different methods of agricultural systems for economic gain and food security. The freelance lighting technician has maintained the Union Street Farm for the past five years, after it was given to him by two fellow neighbors who were too elderly to maintain it.

Harward favors no-till gardening, meaning he doesn't turn over the soil or disrupt the structure built by bacteria and fungi. Aside from being healthier for plants, it leads to really great water infiltration, according to Harward. "Every drop of water that falls on the plant bed stays exactly where it is - I have zero runoff that goes into New York watersheds, which is environmentally friendly. Not putting nitrates into the watershed, all those ways in which agriculture contributes to algae blooms and fish die-offs."

Union Street Farm (Photo courtesy of Garrison Harward)

Harward believes there has been a marked increase in gardening since the pandemic, which leads to more people reaching out to him for advice and resources. Initially providing seedlings to neighbors that were interested in growing their own food, he soon began giving them away to people all over the country. So far, he's sent out eight varieties of seeds to roughly 120 people who reached out to him on Instagram. He even launched a Facebook group titled "NYC Gardening Resources," where he virtually assists new and experienced gardeners alike.

The Union Street Farm's harvest is free for anyone that visits or casually stumbles upon its gates. Although Harward holds free farmers markets every Sunday for people to take home the fruits, vegetables, and herbs that he grows, he welcomes people to take as much as they need, whenever they need it.

"I think there's a lot of realization that we don't have to tie everything to a financial transaction," Harward explained. "There's so many different ways that we can support each other. Like, we're exchanging goods, we're exchanging culture, we're exchanging connections within our neighborhood and if it doesn't have to be monetized, then why should it?"

This ethos is not uncommon in New York City green spaces, where avid gardeners like Harward and Pressman hope to make their hard work and agricultural talents accessible to all. Pressman and his Circular Communities team are currently developing projects such as the Micro Food Hub, which promotes social equity in the agricultural sphere and facilitates the production and exchange of food by connecting community gardens, food producers, restaurants, and consumers via a digital platform, and he hopes to host school tours at his food garden where he can spark a passion for food growing within students and young people. Pressman also intends to ship out DIY planting kits in the future and provide teaching tools that instruct the basics of utilizing small spaces - including greenhouses during the winter - to maximize food growth efficiently and cost-effectively.

"There's this special relationship you have to have with the plants to be able to help them and train them," said Pressman. "It kind of opens up a whole new door for how humans actually emotionally feel around nature and I think people are seeking that out right now, they just might not know exactly how to get it into their home."

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As the Pandemic Continues, Urban Gardening Is Growing on New Yorkers

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Samuel S. T. Pressman had wanted to build a food garden on the rooftop of his Clinton Hill apartment for years. The artist and sculptor had lived on a farm when he was younger and had studied Sustainable Environmental Systems at Pratt. But in a city with a "time is money" mentality, he never found(...)

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Back in May, chef Jaz Johnson saw community fridges popping up around New York City and felt compelled to help fill them. She taught a virtual donation-based cooking class and used the money to buy fresh bread and produce to donate. While she and her friend, Seantell Campbell, were out delivering the food, they had the idea to start a fridge in their own neighborhood, where they could directly help their neighbors.

With the help of their other two founders, Darielle Carter-Johnson and Autumn Lewis, along with the In Our Hearts network, who donated the refrigerator, they opened The Barrio Fridge outside their favorite bodega and began feeding the residents of East Harlem. Like other community fridges, this one relies on donations from members of the community. Those in need are free to go to the fridge and take what they wish.

Johnson says being a chef has made her appreciate the need for accessible food in the community, and has also given her a network to turn the idea into a reality. "Three of the four of us are trained chefs, and three of the four of us are East Harlem natives, so we understood what the unique needs of our community were," she says. "We also have a deep understanding of the realities of food waste in the restaurant world. My plan was to create a self sufficient ecosystem where restaurant partners, local supermarkets, and organizations could help stock our fridge."

While she says this is a great resource for any community, it's been especially helpful during the pandemic. "Our area has been hit especially hard by the pandemic, unemployment, and all that came with it," she says. "The fridge quickly became not only a resource for our neighbors, but a conversational opportunity for them. Many of our community members...take pride in cooking their own meals from scratch and sharing what they plan to make with the contents of the fridge."

She also explains that because many of the residents are immunocompromised, waiting in line at a food pantry poses an extra risk. By providing a free-standing fridge outdoors, residents can walk up and grab what they need without having to stand in line next to strangers or enter a building full of people. Plus, the fresh produce, milk, and eggs available from the community fridge are a great contrast to the shelf-stable and packaged foods that are typically available from local food pantries.

Johnson says she hopes the struggles brought to light by the pandemic can help to create lasting change long after the virus has passed. "Food insecurity is a sad reality for many in this country, but what we're doing is proof that there are steps that can be taken to combat hunger," she says. "Hopefully, those in charge of food policy on a national level see what a community of concerned individuals are capable of doing and create an avenue where rescuing surplus food becomes the norm and businesses are encouraged to do so."

Johnson told us that because of the initiative in New York City, they've seen community fridges pop up in other cities across the country as well. She knows of 16 fridges in NYC, and told us she's now seen them in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, and Philadelphia too.

To organize your own community fridge, consider these tips: First, you'll need a fridge. Consider posting on social media to find out if anyone has an extra they'd be willing to donate. Next, you'll need to assemble a team of organizers to keep the fridge stocked and make sure people know about it. There are over 200 volunteers operating the various NYC community fridges.

It may also be helpful to start a relationship with local restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers markets. Food items like day-old bread or bruised fruit are often thrown away at these locations, but the stores and restaurants may be willing to donate these things if you coordinate volunteer pickup.

If you'd like to help stock The Barrio Fridge, there are a few ways to give: Donate to The Barrio Fridge on GoFundMe, or look for $TheBarrioFridge on Cashapp.

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New York Residents Organize Community Fridges to Feed Hungry Neighbors

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Back in May, chef Jaz Johnson saw community fridges popping up around New York City and felt compelled to help fill them. She taught a virtual donation-based cooking class and used the money to buy fresh bread and produce to donate.

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https://youtu.be/PFDKsvcjfYs

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Karen Washington has lived in New York City all her life, and has spent decades promoting urban farming as a way for all New Yorkers to access to fresh, locally grown food.

Karen has been a resident of the Bronx for over 26 years, although in 2015 she began living part time in Orange County, NY near the farm. Since 1985 Karen has been a community activist, striving to make New York City a better place to live. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, Karen worked with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens. As an advocate, she stood up and spoken out for garden protection and preservation. As a member of the La Familia Verde Community Garden Coalition, she helped launched a City Farms Market, bringing garden fresh vegetables to her neighbors. Karen is a Just Food board member and Just Food Trainer, leading workshops on food growing and food justice for community gardeners all over the city. Karen is a board member and former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, a group that was founded to preserve community gardens. She also co-founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an organization of volunteers committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. In 2012 Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential African Americans in the country, and in 2014 she was awarded with the James Beard Leadership Award.

Professionally Karen was a Physical Therapist for over 30 years, and she "retired" in April 2014 to start Rise & Root Farm.

" To grow your own food gives you power and dignity. You know exactly what you're eating because you grew it. It's good, it's nourishing and you did this for yourself, your family and your community." Karen Washington
Karen Washington in the media:
Bright Spots in the Food System, Annette Nielsen, Edible Bronx. April 29, 2016

Bronx Urban Farmer Receives Earth Day Award for her Years of Work, Advocacy, Metro. April 19, 2016.

Women in Food: Karen Washington Forges Path for Black Farmers, Laura Hurst, SeedStock. April 11, 2016

Ten Questions with Karen Washington, Co-Owner of Rise & Root Farm. FoodTank. April 9, 2016

Karen Washington, Queen of Urban Gardening, Adrien Schless-Meier, Civileats.com. August 20, 2014.

EBONY Reveals 2012 Power 100! Ebony Magazine. November 1, 2012.
Karen Washington at TEDxBarnardCollegeWomen Food Hero: Karen Washington
Contact Karen directly: karen(at)riseandrootfarm.com

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Karen Washington has lived in New York City all her life, and has spent decades promoting urban farming as a way for all New Yorkers to access to fresh, locally grown food.

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Rock Steady Farm is a women and queer-owned cooperative farm, rooted in social justice, growing speciality cut flowers and sustainable vegetables in Millerton, NY.

Truelove Seeds offers rare, open pollinated, and culturally important vegetable, herb, and flower seeds grown by urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture. 50% of every seed packet sale goes back to the farmer who grew it!

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Rock Steady Farm is a women and queer-owned cooperative farm, rooted in social justice, growing speciality cut flowers and sustainable vegetables in Millerton, NY. Truelove Seeds offers rare, open pollinated, and culturally important vegetable, herb, and flower seeds grown by urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture.

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2. Our Work

OUR GARDEN AND KITCHEN CLASSROOMS

The garden, kitchen, and cafeteria at King Middle School serve as a demonstration site and innovation hub for edible education curriculum and pedagogy. We have worked closely with the whole school community to connect our one-acre teaching garden and kitchen classroom to the science and humanities curricula taught to all students. Across the playground, a larger cafeteria kitchen prepares delicious school meals from scratch for all public school students in Berkeley, using fresh, local, seasonal ingredients.

In our professional development programs and short courses, we empower educators to create and sustain similar programs in their home communities. Our goal is to help schools and communities develop strong edible education programs grounded in shared standards of practice and justice, responsive to the cultural, institutional, and funding realities of their own particular situation.

SCHOOL SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

The goal of school supported agriculture is to provide a free, sustainable school lunch for all students, procured directly from farmers and ranchers who take care of the land and their workers. In this vision, the cafeteria transforms from an after-thought to the heart of the school, a place to build community and for students to learn the values of land stewardship and nourishment.

We are implementing this vision in partnership with school districts in California. Our intention is that this work serves as a framework for other school districts looking to develop a similar experience for their community.

THE ALICE WATERS INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

The Alice Waters Institute will be a hub for edible education located in Aggie Square-a thriving innovation ecosystem UC Davis is building in Sacramento. The Alice Waters Institute will advance edible education and school lunch through research, trainings, collaborations, and partnerships.

Read the press release announcing this exciting initiative.

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Our Story | The Edible Schoolyard Project

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OUR GARDEN AND KITCHEN CLASSROOMS The garden, kitchen, and cafeteria at King Middle School serve as a demonstration site and innovation hub for edible education curriculum and pedagogy. We have worked closely with the whole school community to connect our one-acre teaching garden and kitchen classroom to the science and humanities curricula taught to all students.

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Growing up, Amber Edmunds spent many summer days digging in the dirt of her grandparents' garden. Her grandfather grew collard greens, tomatoes, peppers, string beans and annual and perennial flowers. Every Memorial Day, he visited the cemetery to clean family graves and plant flowers around them. Today, Edmunds cherishes those memories and packs her "tiny" apartment with house plants and has containers overflowing with flowers on the balcony.

"I enjoyed gardening a lot," the 41-year-old doula in Pittsburgh told TODAY Parents. "I wanted the same thing for my children."

When Edmunds heard that a local nursery, Soil Sisters, was offering a gardening camp this summer, she enrolled her daughter Lenyxx, 7, in it.

"It is just a great idea," she said. "I am really grateful."

The Soil Sisters are Raynise and Taray Kelly. Thanks to a grant, they started the camp to give children in the Beltzhoover neighborhood of Pittsburgh outdoor activities as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers. Like Edmunds, the Kellys gardened with their grandparents growing up and wanted to introduce a new generation to the tradition.

"I am hoping it gives kids a sense of connection to things that aren't charged up to batteries that don't necessarily have to involve a huge group of people. You can garden with your family or by yourself," Raynise told TODAY Parents." "We're just slowing down the day and just appreciating what nature has to offer."

Over five Sundays from the middle of July through August, the Soil Sisters offer two camp sessions, one in the morning for younger children, age 6 to 9, and one in the afternoon for children age 10 to 13. Each week they learn about a different element of growing, such as about soil, worms, seedlings and herbs, for example. The sisters originally planned to have one camp but so many people were interested they split the 26 campers into two groups.

"It was way more than overwhelming. We were blown away," Raynise said.

Jennifer Lyles' four children, Bryon, 13, Brooke, 12, Brayden, 10 and Brennan, 8 are in the camp.

"My daughter is into gardening and growing things and I thought it would be something good for the boys to learn," the 34-year-old, who works as an appointment scheduler at a doctor's office, told TODAY Parents. "They had their first meeting and they didn't want to leave when I picked them up ... they liked being out there. They're adventurous"

The Kelly sisters recently started their nursery in their basement as they navigate zoning requirements to build a nursery and greenhouse. Raynise works as a garden educator at a Grow Pittsburgh and wanted to show their community that gardening is accessible to everyone. After her now 11-year-old daughter was born, her interest in gardening reignited as she realized how detached she was from the food she ate. She began pursuing gardening professionally and realized her passion could be her career.

"I feel like I came to it so late. Had I had a camp that I went to on weekends about gardening I would have looked for jobs (sooner)," she said. "I felt like (my nursery) needed to represent the residents of that community."

The camp introduces children to a possible career they might not have realized existed, but more importantly it teaches them skills that they can cultivate on their own and with their families.

"Children can't do everything, but there's a lot of it that they can do on their own," Raynise said. "But their parents find themselves getting swept up in growing things and now you've gone from growing in a small pot to having many pots and now mom and dad are digging up in the front yard."

Lenyxx Edmunds said she loved seeing a potato straight from the ground. It was the first time she saw how potatoes grew. But her mom loves that she's learning how to garden from women who look like her.

"Sometimes you don't know what is possible," she said. "Visibility is one of the most important things. It is not to say that children can't learn from someone who doesn't look like them. It is so nice, though, for them to see women who look like them."

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How this urban gardening camp is teaching kids to 'slow down the day'

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Growing up, Amber Edmunds spent many summer days digging in the dirt of her grandparents' garden. Her grandfather grew collard greens, tomatoes, peppers, string beans and annual and perennial flowers. Every Memorial Day, he visited the cemetery to clean family graves and plant flowers around them.