Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The El Sobrante, California based "Closing the Loop: Innovative Healthy Retail for Food and Economic Justice" project is being led by those most adversely affected by food apartheid and economic/social injustices in the Bay Area. With a "second chance at life", as Anthony Forrest of Planting Justice (PJ) likes to say, formerly incarcerated PJ staff are transforming themselves by dedicating their lives in service of their community by growing food and teaching low-income people how to grow fruits, vegetables and medicines sustainably in the city, mentoring and building long-term relationships with youth and adults also at risk of violence and incarceration, training beginning farmers from disenfranchised communities, and building social enterprises that create living-wage jobs. PJ staff-leaders, who are employed from the communities that they serve, are not only surviving the traumas of multi-generational economic disenfranchisement, mass incarceration, violence and gangs,the criminalization of addiction/the lack of addiction recovery services, the deportation of parents, and the pain and suffering associated with being unable to feed your family healthy food, but they are also implementing a nationally and internationally recognized social entrepreneurship model for transforming urban food systems in ways that prioritize the leadership of most impacted peoples. This project is strategically located in the vicinity of three census tracts with a total population of 26,500 and defined as "low-income" by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and is home to a majority population of Black, Asian andHispanic community members. According to Contra Costa County Health Services, 1 in six (6) residents is food insecure. A 2018 Hunger Study conducted by the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, which serves the same population as the proposed project, found that "despite an improving economy, 11.4% of the population in the two-county area - almost 180,000 people - live below the federal poverty line. After factoring in the high cost of living, especially housing, the poverty level may be as high as 17%" with 1 in 8 individuals relying on food bank assistance. According to the USDA 2015 FoodAccess Research Atlas least 33% of the census tract population is greater than 1.0 miles from the nearest supermarket and a detailed review of nearby food retail options reveals that there are no supermarkets within 3 miles of the Project site and only two small corner stores within one mile, with no fresh, local produce. This Project is currently under construction and upon completion and opening its doors to the general public in Late 2023, it will decrease food access disparities in the El Sobrante community while providing living-wage job opportunities to formerly incarcerated and individuals with barriers to employment. To achieve this, the Project will create a food retail outlet that will increase fresh food access by providing "brick-and-mortar" retail opportunities for a dozen other urban farms and food justice projects through the operation of a "pay-what-you-can" indoor-outdoor cafe/healthy foods marketplace. Additionally, the Project will feature two separate yet connected commercial kitchens (one for the cafe and the other for local producers tomake value-added products); a community center/meeting space that will host daily yoga/meditation and eveningarts/culture/musical events; a weekly farmers market; a retail nursery and urban farm store; and educational space. The Project will also provide PJ and its partners with a new point of contact for thousands of local residents to participate in educational and outreach activities aimed at promoting awareness about the benefits of healthy eating and drinking habitsand at engaging the community in sustainable agriculture programs. By accepting SNAP benefits for the edible plants, fresh produce and value-added products sold on site, this project will serve as the only local access within 3 miles of fresh produce that will be affordable and accessible for the thousands of very low-income residents who currently lack access to fresh and healthy food. Up to this point, PJ and our community in El Sobrante, CA has lacked all of the above, and yet these new and novel pieces of critical infrastructure (commercial kitchen, brick-and-mortar retail, farmers market space, farm store, cafe, and healthy foods marketplace) will not only benefit PJ, but our entire region of urban farmers, food justice orgs, and food entrepreneurs who have also lacked this critical infrastructure. This Project represents over 11 years of the food and economic justice community groups coming together to express the need for shared community infrastructure that will support their economic viability. PJ was engaged by the El Sobrante community to purchase the proposed site which had originally been bought up by a developer to turn into a gas station. Community momentum opposed the gas station project, and engaged PJ in in order to create community based solutions, and the same community has continued to be involved in project development, with over 675 community residents taking part in monthly community work parties and hands-on educational programming over the course of the grant period. PJ is very excited because the "Closing the Loop: Innovative Healthy Retail for Food and Economic Justice" project will build upon PJ's cross-sector partnerships and allow for expansion into healthy retail that will lift up the entire region of urban ag growers and food justice organizations. In partnership with the broader community, this will increase PJ and partner organizations'capacity to support a local food system that prioritizes dignified and meaningful jobs that help people stay out of prison. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has created three full-time living wage jobs for people with structural barriers to employment (formerly incarcerated people), who are leading the project as the onsite Project Site Manager, Nursery Manager, and Project Manager. These staff members are getting on-the-job training and mentorship from Planting Justice's Director of Sustainable Development, and are also getting on-the-job training while working alongside this project's General Contractor and construction team. Additionally, 36 community work parties have been held on the site that have been attended by more than 650 unique individual community members. These monthly workparties include experiential education and training in urban farming, sustainable landscaping,and sustainable building technologies to support a more holistic, healthy, and resilient urban food system. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of this project have been disseminated to communities of interest via Planting Justice's website, social media postings, blog, and in-person, via 36 community gatherings attended by over 650 individual community members. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Restore and renovate existing site structure in order to open a pay what you can cafe, healthy foods market place and community gathering/educational/events space. This project has made major headway related to goal 1. Planting Justice was able to leverage this USDA NIFA grant to obtainan additional $1,750,000 in grants, loans, and donations from over 2,000 individuals, to complete the fundraising goals necessary for the renovation of the historic Adachi nursery property into the region's first combined "pay what you can" cafe, healthy foodsmarketplace, retail nursery, and community gathering space. Despite construction delays presented by COVID-19, this project has been able to retain the services of a premier design and construction team (architect, general contractor, interior designer, and subcontractors) who, along with the support of hundreds of local residents who have participated in monthly workparties and hands-on educational programming, have nearly finished this mullti-million dollar renovation. We are hopeful to open up this site to the general public by December 31, 2023! NIFA funds have been used to complete the renovation including framing/electrical/plumbing on this 7,000 square foot building, plus the construction of two commercial kitchens, retail space for the food hub/healthy foods marketplace, and a large gathering space for arts/cultural events and educational programming. In addition, a complete new metal roof has been installed, with solar panels, to ensure that rainwater can safely be harvested and reused in the nursery and landscape, and that our solar powered all-electric kitchen can continue to operate and serve the community with hot meals even during local emergencies such as wildfire related power outages, earthquakes, etc. The renovation is expected to be complete by December 2023 whereupon it will be open to the general public and begin the daily operation of its pay-what-you-can cafe, SNAP/EBT- enabled edible nursery,and community/educational center. Goal 2: Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy, and Affordable Food for Residents of the Bay Area This goal will begin to be fully realized upon the completion of site renovation and the grand opening to the general public,expected in December 2023. At that point, the pay-what-you-can cafe, healthy foods marketplace, and EBT-enabled edible plant nursery will make a major positive impact in the community by improving access to fresh, health, and affordable food for foodinsecure residents of the CA Bay Area. Goal 3: Enable economic opportunity and empowerment of low-income Bay Area residents and people with barriers to employment while promoting sustainable economic development of the CA East Bay food system. This goal has already begun to be realized through the hiring of a formerly incarcerated general contractor, the creation of twofull-time jobs for three formerly incarcerated PJ staff members at the site, and the hiring of six immigrant subcontractors with structural barriers to employement. Goal 4: Experiential Education that supports holistic health, community resilience, and healthy urban food systems This project has already hosted 36 community workparties that have been attended by more than 650 unique individual community members. These monthly workparties include experiential education in urban farming, nutrition education, culinary arts, sustainable landscaping, and sustainable building technologies to support a more holistic, healthy, and resilient urban food system
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience: The El Sobrante, California based "Closing the Loop: Innovative Healthy Retail for Food and Economic Justice" project is being led by those most adversely affected by food apartheid and economic/social injustices in the Bay Area. With a "second chance at life", as Anthony Forrest of Planting Justice (PJ) likes to say, formerly incarcerated PJ staff are transforming themselves by dedicating their lives in service of their community by growing food and teaching low-income people how to grow fruits, vegetables and medicines sustainably in the city, mentoring and building long-term relationships with youth and adults also at risk of violence and incarceration, training beginning farmers from disenfranchised communities, and building social enterprises that create living-wage jobs. PJ staff-leaders, who are employed from the communities that they serve, are not only surviving the traumas of multi-generational economic disenfranchisement, mass incarceration, violence and gangs, the criminalization of addiction/the lack of addiction recovery services, the deportation of parents, and the pain and suffering associated with being unable to feed your family healthy food, but they are also implementing a nationally and internationally recognized social entrepreneurship model for transforming urban food systems in ways that prioritize the leadership of most impacted peoples. This project is strategically located in the vicinity of three census tracts with a total population of 26,500 and defined as "low- income" by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and is home to a majority population of Black, Asian and Hispanic community members. According to Contra Costa County Health Services, 1 in six (6) residents is food insecure. A 2018 Hunger Study conducted by the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, which serves the same population as the proposed project, found that "despite an improving economy, 11.4% of the population in the two-county area - almost 180,000 people - live below the federal poverty line. After factoring in the high cost of living, especially housing, the poverty level may be as high as 17%" with 1 in 8 individuals relying on food bank assistance. According to the USDA 2015 Food Access Research Atlas least 33% of the census tract population is greater than 1.0 miles from the nearest supermarket and a detailed review of nearby food retail options reveals that there are no supermarkets within 3 miles of the Project site and only two small corner stores within one mile, with no fresh, local produce. This Project is currently under construction and upon completion and opening its doors to the general public in 2023, it will decrease food access disparities in the El Sobrante community while providing living-wage job opportunities to formerly incarcerated and individuals with barriers to employment. To achieve this, the Project will create a food retail outlet that will increase fresh food access by providing "brick-and-mortar" retail opportunities for a dozen other urban farms and food justiceprojects through the operation of a "pay-what-you-can" indoor-outdoor cafe/healthy foods marketplace. Additionally the Project will feature two separate yet connected commercial kitchens (one for the cafe and the other for local producers to make value-added products); a community center/meeting space that will host daily yoga/meditation and evening arts/culture/musical events; a weekly farmers market; a retail nursery and urban farm store; and educational space. The Project will also provide PJ and its partners with a new point of contact for thousands of local residents to participate in educational and outreach activities aimed at promoting awareness about the benefits of healthy eating and drinking habits and at engaging the community in sustainable agriculture programs. By accepting SNAP benefits for the edible plants, fresh produce and value-added products sold on site, this project will serve as the only local access within 3 miles of fresh produce that will be affordable and accessible for the thousands of verylow-income residents. Up to this point, PJ has lacked all of the above, and yet these new and novel pieces of critical infrastructure (commercial kitchen, brick-and-mortar retail, farmers market space, farm store, cafe, and healthy foods marketplace) will not only benefit PJ, but our entire region of urban farmers, food justice orgs, and food entrepreneurs who havealso lacked this infrastructure. This Project represents over 11 years of the food and economic justice community groups coming together to express the need for shared community infrastructure that will support their economic viability. PJ was engaged by the El Sobrante community to purchase the proposed site which had originally been bought up by a developer to turn into a gas station. Community momentum opposed the gas station project, and engaged PJ in in order to create community based solutions, and the same community has continued to be involved in project development, with over 450 community residents taking part in community work parties and hands-on educational programming in just the first year of the grant period. PJ is very excited because the "Closing the Loop: Innovative Healthy Retail for Food and Economic Justice" project will build upon PJ's cross-sector partnerships and allow for expansion into healthy retail that will lift up the entire region of urban ag growers and food justice organizations. In partnership with the broader community, this will increase PJ and partner organizations' capacity to support a local food system that prioritizes dignified and meaningful jobs that help people stay out of prison. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Thisproject has created two full-time living wage jobs for people with structural barriers to employment (formerly incarcerated people), who are leading the project as the onsite Project Site Manager and Nursery Manager. These staff members are getting on-the-job training and mentorship from Planting Justice's Director of Sustainable Development, and are also getting on-the-job training while working alongside this project's General Contractor and construction team. Additionally, 18 community work parties have been held on the site that have been attended by more than 450 unique individual community members. These monthly workparties include experiential education and training in urban farming, sustainable landscaping, and sustainable building technologies to support a more holistic, healthy, and resilient urban food system. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Goal 1: Restore and renovate existing site structure in order to open a pay what you can cafe, health foods market place and community gathering/educational/events space.The site renovation will be completed during this next reporting period and alll of its components ("pay what you can" cafe, retail nursery, healthy foods marketplace, and community/educational center) will be open to the general public Goal 2: Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy, and Affordable Food for Residents of the Bay Area The site's pay what you can cafe and EBT enabled edible plant nursery and healthy foods marketplace will open to the general public during the next reporting period. By serving all who enter without regard for their ability to pay, this project will improve access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food for our region's most economically marginalized community members. Within the next reporting period the EBT-enabled healthy foods marketplace and "pay-what-you-can" cafe will make fresh organic food grown by a network of regional producers affordable and accessible to 5,000 low-income residents/year. Within the next reporting period, this project's nursery will make fruit/nut trees, berries, vegetables and herbs widely availableto a diverse customer base and empower 3,000 nursery customers/year to increase their food self-reliance through access to and knowledge of nutrient-dense and climate resilient plants. The nursery will also build connections between multiple sectors of the food system through its plant propagation/production/processing/distribution to our whole region of urgan ag growers. Goal 3: Enable economic opportunity and empowerment of low-income Bay Area residents and people with barriers to employment while promoting sustainable economic development of the CA East Bay food system. By the end of the next reporting period, a total of four (4) new living-wage jobs/year will be created at the Good table cafe in food prep, culinary arts, and retail. 90% of new jobs created for formerly incarcerated people and low-income "at-risk" adults. By the end of the next reporting period, collaborative marketing campaigns, access to commercial kitchen space, and access to highly trafficked retail space will support a regional network of 12 local farms, small food businesses, and urban agricultural organizations which will support the creation of 20 new living-wage jobs/year and the retention of 30 living-wage jobs/year amongst these collaborators. By the end of the next reporting period, increased revenue generation, nursery sales, brand recognition, and donor cultivation achieved at this brick-and-mortar site will support the creation of six (6) new living-wage jobs/year at Planting Justice's other sites (El Sobrante Farm and East Oakland Nursery) and the retention of 20 living-wage jobs/year, in multiple sectors of the food system (nursery and farm production, value-added processing, retail, marketing). 90% of new jobs created for formerly incarcerated people and others with barriers to employment. Goal 4: Experiential Education that supports holistic health, community resilience, and healthy urban food systems By the end of the next reporting period, free urban farming curriculum implemented at the Project site will train low-income residents how to grow food safely and sustainably in the city, and increase the knowledge, resilience and food self-reliance of low-income urban residents, directly benefiting 750 residents a year.By the end of the next reporting period, nutrition, culinary arts, and holistic wellness curriculum will be implemented at the cafe and nursery to empower 500 youth, adults, and seniors a year with the knowledge and confidence to enhance their food purchasing and food-preparation skills as well as their knowledge of the role nutrition plays in wellness and preventative care. Participants will be supported in accessing federally assisted nutrition programs.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Progress Report Goal 1: Restore and renovate existing site structure in order to open a pay what you can cafe, health foods market place and community gathering/educational/events space. This project has made major headway related to goal 1. Planting Justice was able to leverage this USDA NIFA grant to obtain an additional $1,050,000 in grants and donations from over 2,000 individuals, to complete the fundraising goals necessary for the renovation of the historic Adachi nursery property into the region's first combine "pay what you can" cafe, healthy foods marketplace, retail nursery, and community gathering space. Despite construction delays presented by COVID-19, this project has been able to retain the services of a premier design and construction team (architect, general contractor, interior designer, and subcontractors) who, along with the support of hundreds of local residents who have participated in monthly workparties and hands-on educational programming, have nearly finished this mullti-million dollar renovation. NIFA funds have been used to complete therenovation including framing/electrical/plumbing on this 7,000 square foot building, plus the construction of two commercial kitchens, retail space for the food hub/healthy foods marketplace, and a large gathering space for arts/cultural events and educational programming. In addition, a complete new metal roof has been installed, with solar panels, to ensure that rainwater can safely be harvested and reused in the nursery and landscape, and that our solar powered all-electric kitchen can continue to operate and serve the community with hot meals even during local emergencies such as wildfire related power outages, earthquakes, etc. The renovation is expected to be complete by July2023whereupon it will be open to the general public and begin the daily operation of its pay-what-you-can cafe, SNAP/EBT- enabled edible nursery, and community/educational center. Goal 2: Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy, and Affordable Food for Residents of the Bay Area This goal will begin to be fully realized upon the completion of site renovation and the grand opening to the general public, expected in July 2023. At that point, the pay-what-you-can cafe, healthy foods marketplace, and EBT-enabled edible plant nursery will make a major positive impact in the community by improving access to fresh, health, and affordable food for food insecure residents of the CA Bay Area. Goal 3: Enable economic opportunity and empowerment of low-income Bay Area residents and people with barriers to employment while promoting sustainable economic development of the CA East Bay food system. This goal has already begun to be realized through the hiring of a formerly incarcerated general contractor, the creation of two full-time jobs for formerly incarcerated PJ staff members at the site, and the hiring of six immigrant subcontractors with structural barriers to employement. Goal 4: Experiential Education that supports holistic health, community resilience, and healthy urban food systems This project has already hosted 26community workparties that have been attended by more than 525unique individual community members. These monthly workparties include experiential education in urban farming, sustainable landscaping, and sustainable building technologies to support a more holistic, healthy, and resilient urban food system.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The El Sobrante, California based "Closing the Loop: Innovative Healthy Retail for Food and Economic Justice" project is being led by those most adversely affected by food apartheid and economic/social injustices in the Bay Area. With a "second chance at life", as Anthony Forrest of Planting Justice (PJ) likes to say, formerly incarcerated PJ staff are transforming themselves by dedicating their lives in service of their community by growing food and teaching low-income people how to grow fruits, vegetables and medicines sustainably in the city, mentoring and building long-term relationships with youth and adults also at risk of violence and incarceration, training beginning farmers from disenfranchised communities, and building social enterprises that create living-wage jobs. PJ staff-leaders, who are employed from the communities that they serve, are not only surviving the traumas of multi-generational economic disenfranchisement, mass incarceration, violence and gangs, the criminalization of addiction/the lack of addiction recovery services, the deportation of parents, and the pain and suffering associated with being unable to feed your family healthy food, but they are also implementing a nationally and internationally recognized social entrepreneurship model for transforming urban food systems in ways that prioritize the leadership of most impacted peoples. This project is strategically located in the vicinity of three census tracts with a total population of 26,500 and defined as "low- income" by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and is home to a majority population of Black, Asian and Hispanic community members. According to Contra Costa County Health Services, 1 in six (6) residents is food insecure. A 2018 Hunger Study conducted by the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, which serves the same population as the proposed project, found that "despite an improving economy, 11.4% of the population in the two-county area - almost 180,000 people - live below the federal poverty line. After factoring in the high cost of living, especially housing, the poverty level may be as high as 17%" with 1 in 8 individuals relying on food bank assistance. According to the USDA 2015 Food Access Research Atlas least 33% of the census tract population is greater than 1.0 miles from the nearest supermarket and a detailed review of nearby food retail options reveals that there are no supermarkets within 3 miles of the Project site and only two small corner stores within one mile, with no fresh, local produce. This Project is currently under construction and upon completion and opening its doors to the generall public in 2022, it will decrease food access disparities in the El Sobrante community while providing living-wage job opportunities to formerly incarcerated and individuals with barriers to employment. To achieve this, the Project will create a food retail outlet that will increase fresh food access by providing "brick-and-mortar" retail opportunities for a dozen other urban farms and food justice projects through the operation of a "pay-what-you-can" indoor- outdoor cafe/healthy foods marketplace. Additionally the Project will feature two separate yet connected commercial kitchens (one for the cafe and the other for local producers to make value-added products); a community center/meeting space that will host daily yoga/meditation and evening arts/culture/musical events; a weekly farmers market; a retail nursery and urban farm store; and educational space. The Project will also provide PJ and its partners with a new point of contact for thousands of local residents to participate in educational and outreach activities aimed at promoting awareness about the benefits of healthy eating and drinking habits and at engaging the community in sustainable agriculture programs. By accepting SNAP benefits for the edible plants, fresh produce and value-added products sold on site, this project will serve as the only local access within 3 miles of fresh produce that will be affordable and accessible for the thousands of very low-income residents. Up to this point, PJ has lacked all of the above, and yet these new and novel pieces of critical infrastructure (commercial kitchen, brick-and-mortar retail, farmers market space, farm store, cafe, and healthy foods marketplace) will not only benefit PJ, but our entire region of urban farmers, food justice orgs, and food entrepreneurs who have also lacked this infrastructure. This Project represents over 10 years of the food and economic justice community groups coming together to express the need for shared community infrastructure that will support their economic viability. PJ was engaged by the El Sobrante community to purchase the proposed site which had originally been bought up by a developer to turn into a gas station. Community momentum opposed the gas station project, and engaged PJ in in order to create community based solutions, and the same community has continued to be involved in project development, with over 450 community residents taking part in community work parties and hands-on educationall programming in just the first year of the grant period. PJ is very excited because the "Closing the Loop: Innovative Healthy Retail for Food and Economic Justice" project will build upon PJ's cross-sector partnerships and allow for expansion into healthy retail that will lift up the entire region of urban ag growers and food justice organizations. In partnership with the broader community, this will increase PJ and partner organizations' capacity to support a local food system that prioritizes dignified and meaningful jobs that help people stay out of prison. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has created two full-time living wage jobs for people with structural barriers to employment (formerly incarcerated people), who are leading the project as the onsite Project Site Manager and Nursery Manager. These staff members are getting on-the-job training and mentorship from Planting Justice's Director of Sustainable Development, and are also getting on-the-job training while working alongside this project's General Contractor and construction team. Additionally, 18 community work parties have been held on the site that have been attended by more than 450 unique individual community members. These monthly workparties include experiential education and training in urban farming, sustainable landscaping, and sustainable building technologies to support a more holistic, healthy, and resilient urban food system. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Goal 1: Restore and renovate existing site structure in order to open a pay what you can cafe, health foods market place and community gathering/educational/events space. The site renovation will be completed during this next reporting period and alll of its components ("pay what you can" cafe, retail nursery, healthy foods marketplace, and community/educational center) will be open to the general public Goal 2: Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy, and Affordable Food for Residents of the Bay Area The site's pay what you can cafe and EBT enabled edible plant nursery and healthy foods marketplace will open to the general public during the next reporting period. By serving all who enter without regard for their ability to pay, this project will improve access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food for our region's most economically marginalized community members. Within the next reporting period the EBT-enabled healthy foods marketplace and "pay-what-you-can" cafe will make fresh organic food grown by a network of regional producers affordable and accessible to 5,000 low-income residents/year. Within the next reporting period, this project's nursery will make fruit/nut trees, berries, vegetables and herbs widely available to a diverse customer base and empower 3,000 nursery customers/year to increase their food self-reliance through access to and knowledge of nutrient-dense and climate resilient plants. The nursery will also build connections between multiple sectors of the food system through its plant propagation/production/processing/distribution to our whole region of urgan ag growers. Goal 3: Enable economic opportunity and empowerment of low-income Bay Area residents and people with barriers to employment while promoting sustainable economic development of the CA East Bay food system. By the end of the next reporting period, a total of four (4) new living-wage jobs/year will be created at the Good table cafe in food prep, culinary arts, and retail. 90% of new jobs created for formerly incarcerated people and low-income "at-risk" adults. By the end of the next reporting period, collaborative marketing campaigns, access to commercial kitchen space, and access to highly trafficked retail space will support a regional network of 12 local farms, small food businesses, and urban agricultural organizations which will support the creation of 20 new living-wage jobs/year and the retention of 30 living-wage jobs/year amongst these collaborators. By the end of the next reporting period, increased revenue generation, nursery sales, brand recognition, and donor cultivation achieved at this brick-and-mortar site will support the creation of six (6) new living-wage jobs/year at Planting Justice's other sites (El Sobrante Farm and East Oakland Nursery) and the retention of 20 living-wage jobs/year, in multiple sectors of the food system (nursery and farm production, value-added processing, retail, marketing). 90% of new jobs created for formerly incarcerated people and others with barriers to employment. Goal 4: Experiential Education that supports holistic health, community resilience, and healthy urban food systems By the end of the next reporting period, free urban farming curriculum implemented at the Project site will train low-income residents how to grow food safely and sustainably in the city, and increase the knowledge, resilience and food self-reliance of low-income urban residents, directly benefiting 750 residents a year. By the end of the next reporting period, nutrition, culinary arts, and holistic wellness curriculum will be implemented at the cafe and nursery to empower 500 youth, adults, and seniors a year with the knowledge and confidence to enhance their food purchasing and food-preparation skills as well as their knowledge of the role nutrition plays in wellness and preventative care. Participants will be supported in accessing federally assisted nutrition programs.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Restore and renovate existing site structure in order to open a pay what you can cafe, health foods market place and community gathering/educational/events space. This project has made major headway related to goal 1. Planting Justice was able to leverage this USDA NIFA grant to obtain an additional $950,000 in grants and donations from over 2,000 individuals, to complete the fundraising goals necessary for the renovation of the historic Adachi nursery property into the region's first combine "pay what you can" cafe, healthy foods marketplace, retail nursery, and community gathering space. Despite construction delays presented by COVID-19, this project has been able to retain the services of a premier design and construction team (architect, general contractor, interior designer, and subcontractors) who, along with the support of hundreds of local residents who have participated in monthly workparties and hands-on educational programming, have nearly finished this mullti-million dollar renovation. NIFA funds have been used to complete the a complete renovation including framing/electrical/plumbing on this 7,000 square foot building, plus the construction of two commercial kitchens, retail space for the food hub/healthy foods marketplace, and a large gathering space for arts/cultural events and educational programming. In addition, a complete new metal roof has been installed, with solar panels, to ensure that rainwater can safely be harvested and reused in the nursery and landscape, and that our solar powered all-electric kitchen can continue to operate and serve the community with hot meals even during local emergencies such as wildfire related power outages, earthquakes, etc. The renovation is expected to be complete by May 2022 whereupon it will be open to the general public and begin the daily operation of its pay-what-you-can cafe, SNAP/EBT-enabled edible nursery, and community/educational center. Goal 2: Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy, and Affordable Food for Residents of the Bay Area This goal will begin to be fully realized upon the completion of site renovation and the grand opening to the general public, expected in May 2022. At that point, the pay-what-you-can cafe, healthy foods marketplace, and EBT-enabled edible plant nursery will make a major positive impact in the community by improving access to fresh, health, and affordable food for food insecure residents of the CA Bay Area. Goal 3: Enable economic opportunity and empowerment of low-income Bay Area residents and people with barriers to employment while promoting sustainable economic development of the CA East Bay food system. This goal has already begun to be realized through the hiring of a formerly incarcerated general contractor, the creation of two full-time jobs for formerly incarcerated PJ staff members at the site, and the hiring of six immigrant subcontractors with structural barriers to employement. Goal 4: Experiential Education that supports holistic health, community resilience, and healthy urban food systems This project has already hosted 18 community workparties that have been attended by more than 450 unique individual community members. These monthly workparties include experiential education in urban farming, sustainable landscaping, and sustainable building technologies to support a more holistic, healthy, and resilient urban food system.
Publications
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