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 Our Most Impactful Project Yet: Building an Urban Food Production Hub on E. 105th
Help Planting Justice purchase a 2 acre lot on E. 105th (in Sobrante Park, which has the highest unemployment & crime rates in Oakland) and transform it into an urban farm & training center that will greatly expand access to fresh produce, food-producing trees & living wage jobs, for generations to come. With this project, we aim to:
- bring the largest & most biodiverse collection of certified organic tree-crops in North America (1,100 varieties) from Rolling River Nursery in Humboldt County to deep east Oakland
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build a recirculating aquaponics farm that serves as a replicable, drought-resilient model for growing 100,000 pounds of organic produce/year on empty lots with paved or polluted soil
- create at least 10 new, living-wage jobs for people coming home from prison in nursery management, edible and medicinal plan propagation, aquaponics production, marketing, and distribution
- shift how prisoner re-entry is done in California and across the country
- incubate a worker-owned urban farming cooperative to support people in re-entry in replicating these technologies on other empty lots, as collective owners of the enterprise
On April 17th, we will launch our fundraising campaign to raise the $100,000 we need to buy this 2 acre plot of land in deep East Oakland. We need YOU to help us spread the word!
Sign up for our "Thunderclap" - donate your social media reach to our crowdfunding campaign!
We need your help to make our crowdfunding campaign a success. When you sign up for our Thunderclap, you'll join our "online flashmob" - Thunderclap will post 1 tweet and/or 1 Facebook post to your social media network with a link to our fundraiser on the day it launches. This is an easy, free way to help us spread the word and raise the money we need to make this unprecedented investment in the health and economy of this disenfranchised neighborhood. Sign up for the Thunderclap here. |
Save the Date for Our Fundraising Kickoff Party:
Sunday, April 17th!
On Sunday, April 17th, we will launch our crowdfunding campaign to raise $150,000 to buy 2 acres of vacant land in deep East Oakland, where we will build an urban food production hub that create access to living-wage jobs and nutritious, affordable food for the Sobrante Park neighborhood.
Join us for our Kickoff Party!
Sunday, April 17th
2 -5 pm
945 Apgar Street, Oakland
$20 donation requested
Join us for live music, beloved community, and of course, great food for a great cause! This is the perfect opportunity to get your friends on board with what Planting Justice is doing in Oakland. This event is kid friendly so bring the whole family!
From 3-4 pm, our Transform Your Yard team will host a workshop on plant medicine in the garden next door to the party, for those who are interested in gaining knowledge and insight into natural plant medicine practices.
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New Community Justice Garden Hub at Roses in Concrete Community School - Volunteers Needed for April 9th!
Our first Community Justice Garden Hub installation of 2016 began on March 19th at Roses in Concrete Community School in East Oakland. Roses in Concrete is an amazing school dedicated to integrating social justice and community organizing into its curriculum and building community leaders committed to lives characterized by self-discipline, integrity, love and hope in the pursuit of justice and equity for all communities. Roses in Concrete's long term vision is to have a fully operational food forest and farm that provides all of the produce for all the meals consumed on campus! This Spring, Planting Justice will be working with RiC to begin this vision by building a chicken coop, cob oven, parent-maintained vegetable garden, and
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Planting Justice Proves that Changing California's 65% Recidivism Rate is 100% Possible
In 5 years of operation, our re-entry program has a 0% recidivism rate.
0% compared to California's 65%.
We know that incarcerated people are perfectly capable of successfully returning to their families and becoming valuable assets to their communities because we see it every single day at Planting Justice. All 18 men who have come through our re-entry program have not only stayed out of prison and beat California's 65% recidivism rate; they are becoming leaders in their communities, building gardens, mentoring high school students, and supporting others who are making the transition out of California's brutal prison system. Our entire organization budget is approximately 0.002% of the budget the state of CA recently approved for jail expansion - and we have a 100% success rate against recidivism, while California jails have a 65% recidivism rate just within the first year. Justifying the half a billion dollars in jail construction spending in anticipation of maintaining these high rates of recidivism does a profound disservice to the communities most impacted by mass incarceration.
We need to start investing in formerly incarcerated people - not more incarceration.
We are proud to have developed an innovative, sustainable model for prisoner re-entry in California that actually works - read this in depth article to learn more about the secrets to our success and our vision for holistic prisoner re-entry.
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Welcome Our New Farm & Nursery Staffers!
Please welcome Clinton, Troy, Leo, Joe and Brent to the Planting Justice family! These five permaculture rockstars are joining us to manage and operate our newly acquired Rolling River Nursery - the largest & most biodiverse collection of certified organic tree-crops in North America. A portion of the nursery is currently living on our 5 acre farm in El Sobrante, while the rest of the trees and seedlings are still in Humbolt County. Next month, this crew will move the entire nursery to the new site on E. 105th Street in deep east Oakland.
In other staffing news: The Transform Your Yard team is excited to be growing our leadership and training two new Site Leaders, George Britton and Dana Mitchell. George Britton returned from San Quentin in January 2015, and has excelled since his first day with Transform Your Yard! With a background in construction, George has taken quickly to building raised beds and installing irrigation systems. Dana Mitchell, a native of Oakland and Richmond with a deep passion for health, fitness and sustainability, spent a few years working as a general contractor and brings his wealth of knowledge, positive attitude, and calm, centered energy to our team. Dana and George are amazing emerging leaders!
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Hire PJ to Plant Your Spring Garden!
Spring is here! Have you always wanted to grow your own food at home? Now is the perfect time to hire the Transform Your Yard team to install or revitalize your food producing edible garden. Bring Planting Justice to your home in April, and you'll be eating fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash and much more by the summer equinox. This Spring Planting Justice will be offering a 10% discount on labor for our standard edible garden package: two raised beds, an herb spiral and a fruit tree. You can reach TYY at
[email protected], or submit a consultation request online.
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